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🇺🇸 George Washington’s Birthday (3rd Monday of February)

This is an archive of prayers, elegies, and other work composed for, or relevant to, the life of the first president of the United States of America, George Washington (1732-1799), whose birthday is celebrated as a civic day in the United States, every third Monday of the month of February. The day is also known as Presidents’ Day.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written for George Washington’s birthday.

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A Jewish Prayer for Peace between England and her Colonies on a public day of fasting and prayer, 17 May 1776

Fred MacDowell: “Then, as now, war was looked upon by many as a great evil, especially between brothers, and many American Colonists only wanted the oppressive measures of King George III to be lifted, bloodshed ended, and peace restored. The nascent American Congress called for a day of “Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer” along these lines for May 17, 1776. It was for this occasion that this prayer was recited in Congregation Shearith Israel in New York. As you can see, a complete service was arranged for this occasion, meant to invoke the solemnity and seriousness of the occasion; after morning prayer, Taḥanun was to be sung to the tune of a Yom Kippur pizmon; a dozen Psalms recited, and then the Ḥazan would recite this prayer written for the occasion, and of course all were to be fasting. The prayer hopes for a change of heart for King George III and his advisors, that they would rescind their wrath and harsh decrees against “North America,” that the bloodshed should end, and peace and reconciliation should obtain between the Americans and Great Britain once more, in fulfillment of the Messianic verse that Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Of course this was not meant to be, and six weeks later the American Congress declared independence from Great Britain, and there was no walking back from the hostilities which had already occurred.” . . .

Categories: Conflicts over Sovereignty and Dispossession, 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), War

Tags: 18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., England, North America, Revolutionary War, תחינות teḥinot, Western Sepharadim

Contributor(s): Gershom Mendes Seixas and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לשלום המלכות | Prayer for the Welfare of George Washington, George Clinton, and the Thirteen States of America by Hendla Jochanan van Oettingen (1784)

Prayers recited on special occasions and thus not part of the fixed liturgy offered America’s foremost Jewish congregation far greater latitude for originality in prayer. At such services, particularly when the prayers were delivered in English and written with the knowledge that non-Jews would hear them, leaders of Shearith Israel often dispensed with the traditional prayer for the government and substituted revealing new compositions appropriate to the concerns of the day. A prayer composed in 1784 (in this case in Hebrew) by the otherwise unknown Rabbi (Cantor?) Hendla Jochanan van Oettingen, for example, thanked God who “in His goodness prospered our warfare.” Mentioning by name both Governor George Clinton and General George Washington, the rabbi prayed for peace and offered a restorationist Jewish twist on the popular idea of America as “redeemer nation”: “As Thou hast granted to these thirteen states of America everlasting freedom,” he declared, “so mayst Thou bring us forth once again from bondage into freedom and mayst Thou sound the great horn for our freedom.” . . .

Categories: Government & Country, 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags: 18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, American War of Independence, Ḳ.Ḳ. Shearith Israel, Presidents Day, Sepharadi Diaspora, Spanish-Portuguese, United States, Western Sepharadim

Contributor(s): Lyons Collection Committee (translation), Hendla Jochanan van Oettingen and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for the Government in honor of George Washington, First President of the United States of America by Ḳ.Ḳ. Beit Shalome (1789)

The following prayer for the government was composed by Congregation Beth Shalome in Richmond, Virginia in 1789. Please note the acrostic portion of the prayer in which the initial letters of the succeeding lines form the name: Washington. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 Inauguration Day (January 20th), Government & Country, 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags: 18th century C.E., 56th century A.M., acrostic, American Jewry of the United States, George Washington, Prayers for leaders, Presidents Day, United States, Western Sepharadim

Contributor(s): Abe Katz (translation), Ḳ.Ḳ. Beit Shalome and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer before the Tomb of George Washington at Mount Vernon by Rabbi Dr. Max Lilienthal (13 July 1876)

A prayer of Rabbi Lilienthal offered at a tree planting ceremony at the grave of George Washington attended by the delegates to the Council of Hebrew Congregations (the predecessor to the Union for Reformed Judaism) and published in the The Critic and Record, 13 July 1876, on the fourth page. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February)

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, George Washington, Prayers for leaders

Contributor(s): Max Lilienthal and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer for the Centennial of the Inauguration of George Washington, by Rabbi Yaakov Yosef (1889)

The proclamation and prayer of chief rabbi Yaakov Yosef, on the centennial of President George Washington’s Inauguration . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 Inauguration Day (January 20th), 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, George Washington, Needing Vocalization, New York City, Prayers for leaders, Presidents Day, United States

Contributor(s): Yaakov Yosef, Judah David Eisenstein (translation) and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer on the 100th Anniversary of the Death of George Washington, by Rabbi Edward N. Calisch (1899)

This “Washington Anniversary Prayer” was offered by Rabbi Edward Nathan Calisch during the Masonic ceremonies at Mt. Vernon, 18 December 1899, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of George Washington’s death. Rabbi Calisch published it in his autobiography, Three Score and Twenty (1945), pp. 47-48. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February)

Tags: 19th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, George Washington, masculinity, Prayers for leaders, Prayers of Freemasons

Contributor(s): Edward Nathan Calisch and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Abram Simon on 22 February 1925

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 22 February 1925, an elegy for Rep. Julius Kahn (1861-1924). . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 68th Congress, 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., elegies, English vernacular prayer, U.S. House of Representatives, Julius Kahn, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Abram Simon and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

An American Covenant of Brotherhood, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan and Eugene Kohn (1945)

A civic prayer for the Sabbath occurring during Brotherhood Week (February 19th-28th) in the United States. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th), 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, anti-fascist, anti-racist, civic prayers, pluralism, United States

Contributor(s): Eugene Kohn, Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Closing Prayer for Washington’s Birthday, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

This closing prayer for Washington’s Birthday as first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951). . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February)

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

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

Opening Prayer on the Significance of Washington’s Birthday, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

This opening prayer for Washington’s Birthday, “The Significance of the Day,” as first published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951). . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February)

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

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

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Morris Silverman on 19 February 1959

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 19 February 1959. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 86th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, John Foster Dulles, Prayers for leaders, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Morris Silverman and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

Prayer for National Holiday, by Rabbi Morrison David Bial (1962)

“Prayer for National Holiday” by Rabbi Morrison David Bial was first published in his anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 71, from where this prayer was transcribed. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th), 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 Independence Day (July 4th), 🇺🇸 United States of America, 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November)

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., civil rights, English vernacular prayer, United States

Contributor(s): Morrison David Bial and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Theodore Lewis on 18 February 1963

The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 18 February 1963. . . .

Categories: 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies

Tags: 88th Congress, 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Prayers of Guest Chaplains, U.S. Senate, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Theodore Lewis and the Congressional Record of the United States of America

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life mask of George Washington (The Frick Collection)

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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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