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, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR] and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly, a prayer by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)

“Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 433-4 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . .

Categories:

Bedtime Shema, Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), Well-being, health, and caregiving

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Amits Koaḥ, apotropaic prayers of protection, ayin hara, English vernacular prayer, lashon hara, loneliness, lonely man of faith, Psalms 4, social anxiety, יצר הרע yetser hara

Contributor(s):

Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Opening prayer for the 12th U.A.W.–C.I.O. Labor Convention in Milwaukee, by Rabbi Joseph Baron (1949)

This prayer, initially delivered by Rabbi Joseph Baron as an invocation at the opening of the 12th U.A.W.-C.I.O. Labor Convention in Milwaukee, July 1949, was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), pp. 81-82. The prayer was selected for the anthology by Walter P. Reuther (1907-1970), a Lutheran, a leader of organized labor, and a civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. . . .

Categories:

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

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, labor

Contributor(s):

Jospeh L. Baron and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Opening Prayer on the Significance of Labor Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

“Opening Prayer on the Significance of [Labor] Day” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165. . . .

Categories:

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

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, capitalism, civic prayers, ecumenical prayers, English vernacular prayer, the invisible hand

Contributor(s):

Eugene Kohn, John Paul Williams, Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

The Dignity of Labor, a prayer for Labor Day by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

“Dignity of Labor” is a prayer for Labor Day first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.176-177. . . .

Categories:

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

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, civic prayers, ecumenical prayers, English vernacular prayer

Contributor(s):

Eugene Kohn, John Paul Williams, Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Closing Prayer for Labor Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

“Closing Prayer [for Labor Day]” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165. . . .

Categories:

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

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, civic prayers, ecumenical prayers, English vernacular prayer

Contributor(s):

Eugene Kohn, John Paul Williams, Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

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"Knee-pants at forty-five cents a dozen--a Ludlow Street sweater's shop," from How the Other Half Lives, 1890. Photo by Jacob Riis.

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו "May the pleasantness of אדֹני our elo’ah be upon us; may our handiwork be established for us — our handiwork, may it be established." –Psalms 90:17

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