הָאִינְטֶרְנַצְיוֹנָל | the Internationale, by Eugène Pottier (1871); Hebrew translation by Avraham Shlonsky (1921)

The Chanson Internationale (‘International Song’) was originally written in 1871 by Eugène Pottier, a French public transportation worker, member of the International Workingmen’s Association (The First International), and activist of the Paris Commune. He wrote it to pay tribute to the commune violently destroyed that year. The song became the official anthem of The Second International, of the Comintem, and between 1921 and 1944 also of the Soviet Union. Most socialist and communist parties adopted it as their anthem during the last decades of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century, adapting it in local languages (Russian, Yiddish, etc.) to their particular ideological framework. The anthem was first translated into Hebrew by Avraham Shlonsky in 1921. . . .

Categories: 🇫🇷 France, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), Nirtsah, 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September)

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., anti-fascist, Humanist, Humanist Judaism, internationalism, Labor Zionism, national anthems, Paris Commune, Siege of Paris (1870–1871), socialism, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Ron Kuzar (translation), Avraham Shlonsky (translation), Eugène Edine Pottier and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

The City of Light, a poem by Felix Adler (1882)

“The City of Light” is a poem written by Felix Adler. The earliest publication I could find for it dates to 1882, in Unity: Freedom, Fellowship and Character in Religion vol. 8, no. 12 (16 Feb. 1882), p. 477. . . .

Categories: Dying, Tishah b'Av, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September)

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English poetry, Ethical Humanism, ירושלם Jerusalem, mortality, משיח Moshiaḥ, Paris Commune, Prayers as poems, Siege of Paris (1870–1871), universalist, we are the music makers

Contributor(s): Felix Adler and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

אַ סאָציאַליסטישער הַלֵּל | A Yiddish Socialist adaptation of Hallel (1900/1919)

A revolutionary socialist, Yiddish adaptation of Hallel. . . .

Categories: Hallel for Festivals & Rosh Ḥodesh, Hallel, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., labor exploitation, parody, Revolutions of 1917–1923, socialism, Yiddish songs, Yiddish vernacular prayer

Contributor(s): Shlomo Jack Enkin Lewis and Unknown Author(s)

[Prayer for] the Sabbath, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1924)

This prayer for “The Sabbath” by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is found in his, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 69-72. . . .

Categories: Erev Shabbat, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, labor

Contributor(s): Abraham Cronbach and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

“Coal Miners’ Prayer” (CCAR 1924)

This prayer by an unknown author is first found in Evening Service for the Sabbath from the Union Prayer Book (Newly Revised) (1924), p. 45. (It also appears on the same page of the 1940 edition of the “newly revised” UPB.) The prayer is included as a third variation of a Reform synagogue’s Shabbat evening service, in the Amidah before the silent meditation. Rabbi Michael Satz of Temple B’nai Or (Morristown, New Jersey) affectionately refers to it as the “Coal Miner’s Prayer.” . . .

Categories: Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Gratitude, physical labor

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s), Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Man Is Here for the Sake of Others, by Albert Einstein (1930) as excerpted by Rabbi Morrison David Bial

“Man Is Here for the Sake of Others,” a short excerpt from a longer essay by Albert Einstein, was included by Rabbi Morrison David Bial in his collection of supplemental prayers and texts for personal prayer and synagogue services: An Offering of Prayer (Temple Sinai of Summit, New Jersey, 1962). The full text of Einstein’s essay appeared under the title “What I Believe” in Forum and Century 84 (October 1930), no. 4, p. 193-194. David E. Rowe and Robert Schulman (in Einstein on Politics 2007, p. 226) note, “The text was reproduced several times under the title ‘The World as I See It,’ most notably in Mein Weltbild and Ideas and Opinions, and in 1932 the German League of Human Rights released a phonograph recording of Einstein reading a slightly variant version entitled ‘Confession of Belief.'” . . .

Categories: Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), 🤦︎ Taḥanun (Nefilat Apayim), 🌐 Human Rights Day (December 10th)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., anti-fascist, cosmic religion, democracy, determinism, חתימות ḥatimot (concluding prayers), Openers

Contributor(s): Morrison David Bial, Albert Einstein and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

🌐 International Workers’ Day (May 1st)