This is an archive of prayers and song composed for, or relevant to, Labour Day in Canada and Labor Day in the United States, celebrated on the first Monday of September.
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🖖︎ Prayers & Praxes —⟶ 📅︎ Prayers for Civic Days on Civil Calendars —⟶ United States Civil Calendar —⟶ 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September) 🡄 (Previous category) :: 📁 🇺🇸 Independence Day (July 4th) 📁 🇺🇸 September 11th Day of Service & Remembrance :: (Next Category) 🡆 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September)This is an archive of prayers and song composed for, or relevant to, Labour Day in Canada and Labor Day in the United States, celebrated on the first Monday of September. If you have composed a prayer for Labor Day, please share it here. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Felix Adler | Jospeh L. Baron | Stephen Belsky | Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR] | Abraham Cronbach | Aaron David Gordon | Mordecai Kaplan | Eugene Kohn | Ron Kuzar (translation) | Isaac Gantwerk Mayer | Eugène Edine Pottier | Avraham Shlonsky (translation) | Unknown | Aharon N. Varady (transcription) | Aharon N. Varady (translation) | John Paul Williams Filter resources by Tag American Jewry of the United States | anti-fascist | artisans | capitalism | civic prayers | crafters | ecumenical prayers | English poetry | English vernacular prayer | Ethical Humanism | Gratitude | Hapoel Hatsair | Humanist | Humanist Judaism | internationalism | ירושלם Jerusalem | labor | Labor Zionism | Michigan | mortality | משיח Moshiaḥ | national anthems | Nature | North America | Paris Commune | physical labor | Prayers as poems | socialism | תחינות teḥinot | טבע Teva | the invisible hand | United States | universalist | we are the music makers | work | work as worship | workers | workers' rights | worship as work | Yom Ha'Avodah | זמירות zemirot | Siege of Paris (1870–1871) | 19th century C.E. | 20th century C.E. | 21st century C.E. | 57th century A.M. | 58th century A.M. Filter resources by Category Dying | Erev Shabbat | 🇫🇷 France | 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st) | Nirtsah | Tishah b'Av | Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range Looking for something else? For prayers of all sorts categorized under “Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnassah,” please visit here. For prayers composed for, or relevant to, International Workers’ Day, please visit here. For public readings prepared for Labor Day, please visit here. For public readings selected for International Workers’ Day, please visit here. Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? 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) “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) This prayer for “The Sabbath” by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is found in his, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 69-72. . . . 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) Contributor(s): Unknown, Central Conference of American Rabbis [CCAR] and Aharon N. Varady (transcription) Salvation through Labor, a prayer for the Sabbath before Labor Day, adapted from the writings of A.D. Gordon by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)“Salvation through Labor,” adapted by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan from the writings of Aaron David Gordon, can be found on p. 548-551 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). The translation was attributed in the Sabbath Prayer Book to its editors (Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn, assisted by Ira Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg). . . . 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. . . . 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. . . . 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. . . . 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]” was first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p.165. . . . 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) A worker’s prayer by Rabbi Stephen Belsky, dedicated to Noam Ezra ben haRav Moshe z”l. . . . Categories: Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), 🇺🇸 Labor Day (1st Monday of September) This is a petition for the worker in the style of “Av Haraḥamim” and similar texts, using Biblical and Mishnaic language and co-opting it into a new meaning. It could be read after the Torah service (like many other petitionary texts) or focused on in private. The Biblical relationship between God, humanity, and labor is fascinating. Often it is treated as a curse placed upon us, and just as often as the purpose of humanity. In Genesis 3:19 it is the curse placed upon a disobedient First Adam, but less than a chapter earlier in Genesis 2:15 it is the reason for First Adam’s creation in the first place! In the past century or so, traditional Judaism has somewhat tilted away from the ideas of worker’s rights so clearly stated in the Tanakh and in rabbinic texts. Partially this was to disassociate from the Bundists, partially out of fear of “looking too Communist” in a xenophobic American society, and partially because the Jewish working class is nowhere near as substantial a part of the community as it once was. If this text is meant to do anything, it’s to show that love of God and love of the worker aren’t opposed to each other – in fact, they go hand in hand! . . .
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The Open Siddur Project is a volunteer-driven, non-profit, non-commercial, non-denominational, non-prescriptive, gratis & libre Open Access archive of contemplative praxes, liturgical readings, and Jewish prayer literature (historic and contemporary, familiar and obscure) composed in every era, region, and language Jews have ever prayed. Our goal is to provide a platform for sharing open-source resources, tools, and content for individuals and communities crafting their own prayerbook (siddur). Through this we hope to empower personal autonomy, preserve customs, and foster creativity in religious culture.
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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