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🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan)

This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, יוֹם הַזִּכָּרוֹן לַשּׁוֹאָה וְלַגְּבוּרָה (Yom HaZikaron laShoah v’laG’vurah, “Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day”), Holocaust Remembrance Day in the State of Israel (27 Nisan). (To avoid being adjacent to Shabbat, observance of the day is moved to 26 Nisan if 27 Nisan falls on a Friday. If 27 Nisan falls on a Sunday, the day is moved to 28 Nisan.) The civic memorial day commemorates the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. The first official commemorations took place in 1951, and the observance of the day was anchored in a law passed by the Knesset in 1959.

If you have composed a prayer or prayer-poem for a Holocaust Remembrance Day, or specifically for Yom haShoah, please share it here.

Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first?

[Prayer on] the German Crisis, by Rabbi Norman M. Goldburg (3 April 1933)

“The German Crisis” by Rabbi Norman Michael Goldburg, was offered before the California state legislature on 3 April 1933, and published in California Legislature 50th Session 1933: Prayers Offered at the Daily Sessions of the Assembly, pp. 59-60. . . .

Tags: 1933 in Germany, 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., California State Legislature, English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, Reichstag Fire Decree, United States

Contributor(s): Norman Michael Goldburg and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for all Jewish Communities in Germany for the Eve of the Day of Atonement, by Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck (10 October 1935)

This is the prayer which Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck had disseminated to Jewish communities throughout Germany to recite on Yom Kippur, 10 October 1935. The German text here is as found in the archival notes of Helmut Grünewald, Ein Judenjunge durfte kein Deutscher sein (Bristol, 1998), pp. 20-21 in the collection of the Leo Baeck Institute. The English translation is as published by Dr. Michael Meyer in Rabbi Leo Baeck: Living a Religious Imperative in Troubled Times (2020), pp. 106-107. . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Yom Kippur

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., עמידה amidah, German Jewry, German vernacular prayer, standing meditation, Third Reich, Yom Kippur

Contributor(s): Leo Baeck and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לעזרת היהודים תושבי גרמניה | Prayer for German Jewry under Nazi oppression before and after Kristallnacht (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the British Empire 1938)

An untitled prayer on behalf of German Jewry under Nazi oppression disseminated in Bombay, likely after Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938). . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Shiv'ah Asar b'Tamuz, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., anti-fascist, British Empire, German Jewry, Jews of India, the Holocaust, Third Reich, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Joseph Herman Hertz, Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for a Service of Intercession [for European Jewry during the Holocaust], by Lilian Helen Montagu (ca. 1940)

This undated “Special prayer for Service of Intercession” by the Hon. Lily H. Montagu (1873-1963) from the archives of the Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London, was published in, Lily Montagu: Sermons, Addresses, Letters, and Prayers (ed. Ellen M. Umansky, 1985), pp. 356-357. From the contents, it reads as if it was composed in response to the terrifying news of the tortuous treatment of European Jews during the Holocaust. In 1940, other “intercession” services were offered with comparative prayers; for example, this one by the chief rabbi J.H. Hertz included in the Prayer Book for H.M. Forces. . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., British Jewry, English vernacular prayer, the Holocaust, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Lilian Helen Montagu and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

שִׁיר הַגְאוּלָה (החיינו אל) | Shir ha-Ge’ulah (Song of Redemption), by an anonymous author (1940)

This is a vocalized transcription and translation of the World War Ⅱ era song, “Shir haGe’ulah (Song of Redemption)” from the source images shared in A Tribute to Rabbi Mordechai Meir Hakohen Bryski v”g Bryski (Rabbi Mordechai A. Katz, 2017), pp. 19-20. The song is also known by its incipit, “Heḥayyeinu El.” . . .

Categories: Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Se'udah haShlishit

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., acrostic, חבּ״ד ḤaBaD Lubavitch, משיח Moshiaḥ, the Holocaust, World War Ⅱ, זמירות zemirot

Contributor(s): Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Israel Goldstein on 21 April 1942

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 21 April 1942. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 77th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Israel Goldstein, the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

זאָג ניט קײן מאָל | Partisaner Lid (the Partisan Song), by Hirsh Glik (Vilna Ghetto, 1943)

The Yiddish resistance song, “Partisaner Lid” (The Partisan Song) was composed by Hirsh Glick in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943. . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Ḥanukkah, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-fascist, anti-fascist action, anti-Nazi, Guerrilla warfare, partisan resistance, resistance, the Holocaust, Ukrainian translation, Vilna, World War Ⅱ, Yiddish songs, Yiddish vernacular prayer, Yiddishland

Contributor(s): comYakowenko (translation), Noam Lerman (translation), Hirsh Glik and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים | El Malé Raḥamim for Victims of the Shoah (the Netherlands, ca. late 1940s)

This is an undated El Malé Raḥamim prayer for the victims of the Shoah translated into Dutch for a Yom Kippur ne’ilah service, likely sometime soon after the Holocaust had ended. To this I have added an English translation for those not fluent in Dutch or Hebrew. We are grateful to Shufra Judaica (Ellie Fisher and David Selis) for sharing a digital copy of this prayer. . . .

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Dutch Jewry, אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim, נעילה‎ neilah, Netherlandish Jewry, the Holocaust, השואה the Shoah

Contributor(s): Unknown Translator(s), Unknown Author(s) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

שְׁפוֹךְ אֲהָבָתֵךְ | Shfokh Ahavatekh (Pour Out Your Love), by Rabbi Ḥayyim Bloch (1948)

A paraliturgical adaptation of the prayer/curse, “Shfokh Ḥamatekha,” this prayer, likely written during, or just after the Holocaust, recognizes those nations and righteous gentiles who fought and risked their lives to aid and rescue European Jewry. . . .

Categories: Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Barekh, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., paraliturgical shfokh hamatekha, post-Holocaust liturgical adaptations, righteous gentiles, שפוך חמתך shfokh ḥamatekha, the Holocaust, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s): Mosheh Ḥayyim ben Avraham Abba Bloch and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

📖 נאַכטװערטער | מדרשי צלמוות | Nightwords: A Midrash on the Holocaust, by Dr. David G. Roskies (1970, 4th ed. CLAL: 2000)

The first published liturgy for Yom Hashoah, and containing the first use of cantillated English for liturgical purposes. . . .

Categories: Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Day Readings, 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cantillated readings in English, tropified texts

Contributor(s): David Roskies

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Morris M. Shapiro on 8 April 1975

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 8 April 1975. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 94th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot, the Holocaust

Contributor(s): Morris M. Shapiro, the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Laurence A. Kotok on 2 May 1979

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 2 May 1979 in the event of the 31st anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇮🇱 Yom ha-Atsma'ut (5 Iyyar), 🇮🇱 Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 96th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Laurence A. Kotok, the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

קִינָה עַל חֻרְבָּן הָאַחֲרוֹן | Lamentation on the Holocaust, by Shimon Zuker (1980)

A ḳinnah composed by a concentration camp survivor. . . .

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cantillated readings in English, קינות Ḳinōt, the Holocaust

Contributor(s): Gertrude Hirschler (translation), Simon Zuker, Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Len Fellman (translation)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Seymour L. Essrog on 20 April 1982

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 20 April 1982. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 97th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, prayers of military chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Seymour L. Essrog, the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Isaac Neuman on 11 April 1983

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 11 April 1983. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 98th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot, the Holocaust

Contributor(s): Isaac Neuman, the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer at the National Civic Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, by Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 28 April 1987

This prayer was delivered by the U.S. Navy Chaplain, Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, at the 1987 National Civic Commemoration of the Days of Remembrance, in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. It was first published in Days of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust: a Department of Defense guide for commemorative observance (Office of the Secretary of Defence, 1988). . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, English vernacular prayer, the Holocaust, השואה the Shoah

Contributor(s): Arnold E. Resnicoff

על השואה ועל התפלתה | Prayer in the Shoah, an essay and a prayer by Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni (2000)

A meditation on a unique prayer heard by Rabbi Dr. David Weiss Halivni at the Rosh Hashanah services at the Wolfsberg Labor Camp in 1944. . . .

Categories: Holocaust & Genocide Memorial Day Readings, Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer, Davvening, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., non-dual theology, the Holocaust

Contributor(s): Peter W. Ochs (translation), David Weiss Halivni and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff on 29 April 2003

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 29 April 2003. . . .

Categories: 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 108th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Arnold E. Resnicoff

‏אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים תְפִילָה לַנִּסְפִּים בַּשּׁוֹאָה | El Malé Raḥamim Prayer for the Victims of the Shoah, by Rabbi Yehoyada Amir

A prayer for the victims of the Holocaust in Hebrew with English, Romanian, and Ukrainian translations. . . .

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim, mourning, Romanian translation, the Holocaust, השואה the Shoah, Ukrainian translation

Contributor(s): Mona Lantz Levi (translation), Lada Moskalets (translation), Yehoyada Amir and Aharon N. Varady (translation)

סֵדֶר לְיוֹם הַשׁוֹאָה | Seder for Yom haSho’ah, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

The most traumatic event in recent Jewish history is the Holocaust. At this time, the survivors of the camps are aging, and in the lifespan of people alive today it is likely that the last survivor will die. We say we must never forget what happened during the Holocaust, but if we think of it as a tragedy that happened to our ancestors we will forget. But it has been 3000 years since the Exodus from Egypt, and the Haggadah keeps its history vivid and alive. We are taught that in each and every generation we are to think of ourselves as having been slaves in Egypt. May it be that just as we never forgot the wonders of the Exodus, so too we never forget the horrors of the Holocaust, and continue to strive that such horrors may never happen again until all live in freedom and peace. . . .

Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan)

Tags: 21st century C.E., כ״ז ניסן Nisan 27, 58th century A.M., Mourning this Broken World, North America, speaking truth to power, symbolic foods, the Holocaust, השואה the Shoah

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

אֶפְתַּח פִּי לְךָ אָדוֹן | Eftaḥ Pi L’kha Adōn, a seliḥah for Kristallnacht by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

There’s a lot of controversy over Yom haShoah as a date. One of the key issues is this: traditionally, the ways Jews mourn communal tragedies is through establishing a fast day. It’s forbidden to fast during the month of Nisan. It’s hard to pick any specific date to commemorate a tragedy as enormous as the Shoah, but one which seems appropriate to me would be 16 Marḥeshvan, the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the November Pogrom. This piyyut is a seliḥah for Kristallnacht, to be recited on 16 Marḥeshvan (or 15 Marḥeshvan on years like 5782 where the sixteenth falls on a Thursday). . . .

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., acronym, Alphabetic Acrostic, פיוטים piyyutim, קינות Ḳinōt, השואה the Shoah, Third Reich

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

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Associated Image:

"Jews captured by the SS during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising march past the St. Zofia hospital down Nowolipie Street towards the Umschlagplatz for deportation." (Leszek Grzywaczewski, 1943 - USHMM pa13707

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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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