A Prayer for the United Nations, by Lilian Helen Montagu

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription) and Lilian Helen Montagu

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26 August 2022 under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license

Categories:

United Nations, United Nations Day (October 24th)

Tags:

20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., British Jewry, English vernacular prayer

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Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Gracious God, who art the Father of all people from everlasting to everlasting; suffer us not to turn aside from Thy guidance in the troublous times that afflict us. Look with compassion upon Thy warring children. Impel us, we pray, to build bridges of understanding across age-old hatreds and seething strife.
	Grant renewed strength and insight, O God, to all who seek world peace through the United Nations. Bless those international servants who have dedicated themselves to work in council halls and on far flung missions, that the curse of war shall not again scourge the human race. Spur us to further the efforts of the United Nations to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to heal the sick, to teach Thy children everywhere how to live a more abundant life.
	Strike from the hearts of us and of all people, we beseech Thee, fear and self-righteousness and pride. Direct us in our own beloved and mighty land to have mercy and to walk humbly before Thee. Show Thy children, while there is yet time, how to live together in hope and peace all their days.
	Amen.

This undated “Prayer for the United Nations” 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. 357-358.

Source(s)

Lily Montagu: sermons, addresses, letters, and prayers – Religious Leadership – p. 357

Lily Montagu: sermons, addresses, letters, and prayers – Religious Leadership – p. 358

. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike . 4.0 . International .

“A Prayer for the United Nations, by Lilian Helen Montagu” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.

Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)

Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)

Lilian Helen Montagu

The Hon. Lilian Helen "Lily" Montagu, CBE (22 December 1873 – 22 January 1963) was the first woman to play a major role in Progressive Judaism. Until the age of 15, she was educated at Doreck College, and privately educated thereafter. In 1893 she founded with Emily Marion Harris the West Central Jewish Girls Club (which subsequently merged into the Jewish Girls' Brigade). She was active in social improvement, particularly in respect to unemployment, sweat shops and bad housing. In 1901 and 1902, Montagu laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Jewish Religious Union in London. In February 1902 she arranged the first meeting of the Jewish Religious Union for the Advancement of Liberal Judaism at her sister Henrietta Franklin's house. The Union set up the first synagogue in Liberal Judaism in the UK and helped found the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Montagu was a founding member with her sister of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. She sat on the executive committee and led the meetings in prayer. Following the retirement of Leo Baeck, Montagu served for a brief stint (1955–1959) in her 80s as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, before handing the reins over to Solomon Freehof.

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Works of related interest:

[Prayer on] the Birthday of the United Nations, by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (1947)

Washington, D.C. Representatives of 26 United Nations at Flag day ceremonies in the White House to reaffirm their pact. Seated, left to right: Dr. Francisco Castillo Najera, Ambassador of Mexico; President Roosevelt; Manuel Quezon, President of the Philippine Islands; and Secretary of State Cordell Hull

Prayer for Brotherhood, by Stephen Vincent Benét on United Nations Flag Day (14 June 1942)

Opening Prayer for United Nations Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

Closing Prayer for United Nations Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, J. Paul Williams, and Eugene Kohn (1951)

"Chagall Window 1967," a United Nations stamp (Public Domain)

💬 Preamble and Introduction to the United Nations Charter (1945) | מבוא לאמנת האומות המאוחדות (Hebrew trans., 1949)

[Children’s] Prayer for Ḥanukkah, by Lilian Helen Montagu (5 December 1942)

Hove Progressive Synagogue, Lansdowne Road, looking east. (credit:,Hassocks5489 license: CC0/PD)

Prayer on the Anniversary of Brighton & Hove Liberal Synagogue, by Lilian Helen Montagu (27 May 1956)

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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