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🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, Memorial Day in the United States, commemorated on the last Monday of May. Memorial Day is the day previously known as Decoration Day. The first national observance of Decoration Day occurred on 30 May 1868 after having been proclaimed by Commander in Chief John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor the Union soldiers who had died in the Civil War. In 1971, Congress changed its observance to the last Monday in May and officially renamed the day "Memorial Day," a day of remembrance for all members of the U.S. military who fought and died in service.

If you have composed a prayer or prayer-poem for Memorial Day, please share it here.

PrayersReadings

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

A Prayer at the Dedication of a Memorial for Fallen Soldiers, by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak (1924)

“Dedication of Monument for War Heroes” was written and delivered by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak at the dedication of a war memorial at Ocean Parkway, “near Fort Hamilton Parkway,” Brooklyn, in 1924. The prayer was first published in Rabbi Bosniak’s לקוטי תפלות Liḳutei Tefilot: Pulpit and Public Prayers (1927), pp. 108-109. We are not familiar with any war memorials in the vicinity of Ocean Parkway near Fort Hamilton Parkway that were dedicated in 1924. (The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial dedicated by veterans of the Spanish-American War in 1924 can be found just off of Ocean Parkway on the southern edge of Asser Levy Park, but that is a far distance from Fort Hamilton Parkway. Perhaps it had been relocated at some point?) If you know the exact location of this memorial, please leave a comment, or contact us.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), War

Tags:

20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., Americanism, dedications and consecrations, English vernacular prayer, peace, Spanish–American War, Slaveholders' Rebellion (1861-1865), World War Ⅰ

Contributor(s):

Jacob Bosniak and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Abram Simon on 29 May 1929

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the second month of the first session of the 71st US House of Representatives, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 71 part 2 (29 May 1926), page 2173.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

71st Congress, 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Abram Simon, the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Memorial Prayer for Those Lost Through Human Strife, by Rabbi Chaplain (Lieutenant) Alexander David Goode (ca. 1943)

A memorial prayer for service members lost in times of war, given by a chaplain who sacrificed his life for others during WWII.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Four Chaplains Day (February 3rd), 🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), War

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, SS Dorchester, World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s):

Alexander David Goode and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

“That America’s Heroes Shall Not Have Died in Vain” with a special El Malé Raḥamim prayer for Memorial Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)

A service and prayer for Memorial Day in the United States, containing a variation of El Malé Raḥamim, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, Decoration Day, אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim, English vernacular prayer, United States

Contributor(s):

Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

A Prayer for Peace After War, by Norman Corwin (1945)

A prayer for peace from the end of World War II.

Categories:

🇺🇸 National Brotherhood Week, 🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., World War Ⅱ

Contributor(s):

Norman Corwin and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for the United States during the Cold War, by Julius Klein (Jewish War Veterans of the USA, 1951)

This prayer by Brigadier General Julius Klein was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), p. 47. The anthology notes that “Accompanying the prayer of General Klein, National Commander of Jewish War Veterans, U.S.A., is this message: ‘I wish to express the deep-seated conviction that this book of prayers will be warmly received by a world which is very much in need of closer contact with God.’”

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., Cold War (1947–1953), English vernacular prayer, United States, United States in the Korean War

Contributor(s):

Julius Klein, Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

[Prayer for] Memorial Day, by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1954)

A prayer for Memorial Day in the United States, composed in 1954.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-communist, anti-fascist, English vernacular prayer, North American Jewry

Contributor(s):

Avraham Samuel Soltes and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Saul Israel Wisemon on 28 May 1970

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 28 May 1970.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

91st Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

Saul Israel Wisemon, 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 Shmuel Herzfeld on 23 May 2014

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 23 May 2014.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

113th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Memorial Day, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Shmuel Herzfeld

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Stephen Roth on 29 May 2014

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 29 May 2014.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags:

113th Congress, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Memorial Day, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s):

the Congressional Record of the United States of America and Stephen Roth

Memorial Day Prayer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 28 May 2018

A prayer offered by Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff at the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day May 28th 2018.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May), 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Decoration Day, English vernacular prayer, Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Contributor(s):

Arnold E. Resnicoff

Memorial Day Prayer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 25 May 2020

Invocation for a virtual Memorial Day ceremony at the Washington DC Vietnam War Veterans Memorial.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Contributor(s):

Arnold E. Resnicoff

A Prayer for Remembrance and Peace on Memorial Day, by David Abernethy

A prayer for the observance of Memorial Day in the United States.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, civic prayers, English vernacular prayer, United States

Contributor(s):

David Abernethy

Memorial Day Prayer at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, by Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff on 31 May 2021

Invocation for a Memorial Day ceremony at the Washington DC Vietnam War Veterans Memorial.

Categories:

🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May)

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Contributor(s):

Arnold E. Resnicoff

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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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