This is an archive of prayers composed for, or relevant to, the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust in the United States. The Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust (DRVH) is an annual 8-day period designated by the United States Congress for civic commemorations and special educational programs that help citizens remember and draw lessons from the Holocaust. The annual DRVH period normally begins on the Sunday before Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Memorial Day in the State of Israel on the 27th of Nisan, and continues through the following Sunday, usually in April or May. A National Civic Commemoration is held in Washington, D.C., with state, city, and local ceremonies and programs held in most of the fifty states, and on U.S. military ships and stations around the world. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum designates a theme for each year’s programs, and provides materials to help support remembrance efforts. A House Joint resolution 1014 designated April 28 and 29 of 1979 as “Days of Remembrance of Victims of the Holocaust.” Senator John Danforth of Missouri, who originated the resolution, chose April 28 and 29 because it was on these dates, in 1945, that American troops—including at least one ethnically segregated artillery battalion of the U.S. Army, many of whose own relatives were themselves interned during the war on American soil—liberated the Dachau concentration camp and a number of its satellite camps, as well as rescuing hundreds of Jewish-ethnicity camp inmates driven southwards from Dachau by the Nazis on a death march only days later. If you have composed a prayer or prayer-poem for the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, please share it here. Filter resources by Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category
This prayer for victory and deliverance in the war against Nazi Germany, simply titled “War Prayer,” appears in the Prayer Book of Jewish Members of H.M. Forces (Office of the Chief Rabbi 1940), pp. 16-17. Sections of the prayer were adapted from the prayer on the declaration of war by Rabbi Hertz in 1914 at the outset of World War I. In the preface to the payer book, Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz specifically mentions this prayer, among others, as having been newly revised for this publication. The initial version of the prayer, likely to have been written by Rabbi Hertz, was published by the Office of the Chief Rabbi for a 17 Tammuz service in July 1938. A revision was disseminated after Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938). This is the third version of the prayer. . . .
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. . . .
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.” . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 21 April 1942. . . .
The Yiddish resistance song, “Partisaner Lid” (The Partisan Song) was composed by Hirsh Glick in the Vilna Ghetto in 1943. . . .
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
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. . . .
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. . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 8 April 1975. . . .
A ḳinnah composed by a concentration camp survivor. . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 20 April 1982. . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 11 April 1983. . . .
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). . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 24 April 1990. . . .
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. . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 29 April 2003. . . .
The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 30 April 2003. . . .
A prayer for the victims of the Holocaust in Hebrew with English, Romanian, and Ukrainian translations. . . .
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). . . .
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