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Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

This is an archive of prayers composed in response to an incident of hateful intolerance, prejudice, and bigotry.

Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and translation of a historical prayer.

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

[Prayer for] Our Contemners, by Rabbi Abraham Cronbach (1924)

Titled, “Our Contemners ,” this prayer from Rabbi Abraham Cronbach is the second in his collection of prayer, Prayers of the Jewish Advance (1924), on pages 8 through 11. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., combating anti-Jewish oppression, English vernacular prayer, Jewish pacifism, תחינות teḥinot

Contributor(s): Abraham Cronbach and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

[Prayer] in Spring, by Rabbi Avraham Samuel Soltes (ca. 1950s)

A prayer “in spring” that uses the metaphor of mining for seeking out the goodness in one’s fellow. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., American Jewry of the United States, Community, English vernacular prayer, fellowship, love your fellow as yourself, Problematic prayers, Trenton Six

Contributor(s): Avraham Samuel Soltes and Aharon N. Varady (transcription)

תפילה לארצות הברית לאחר הטבח בפּיטסבּורג | Prayer for the United States after the Pittsburgh Massacre, by Rabbi Stephen Belsky (2018)

A prayer composed in the aftermath of the mass murder of the Dor Ḥadash community at the Ets Ḥayyim (Tree of Life) Synagogue in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh on Shabbat morning 27 October 2018. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror, 🇺🇸 United States of America

Tags: 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., mass murder inside a synagogue, Prayers after acts of terrible violence, prayers for municipalities, United States

Contributor(s): Stephen Belsky

From the Depths: A Prayer For Christchurch, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor (2019)

A prayer written in response to the massacre of Muslim worshipers during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Christchurch mosque shootings, prayers for municipalities

Contributor(s): Menachem Creditor

אוֹי לַלֵב שֶׁאֵינָה שְׁבוּרָה | Woe to the Heart that is not Broken, a ḳinah by Rabbi Dr. Aryeh Cohen (2019)

A ḳinnah composed in response to the agonizing and cruel United States immigration policy implemented under the presidency of Donald Trump. . . .

Categories: Tishah b'Av, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Immigration policy of Donald Trump, אוי oy, קינות Ḳinōt, United States Immigration Policy, welcome the immigrant

Contributor(s): Aryeh Cohen

אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָה, נוּסַח פִּיטְסְבּוּרְג | Eileh Ezkarah for Pittsburgh, by Rabbi Jonathan Perlman with Rabbi Tamar Elad-Appelbaum & Rabbi Martin Cohen (2019)

A ḳinah for the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Boston in 2018. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror

Tags: 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., martyrdom, mass murder inside a synagogue, Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s): Jonathan Perlman, Tamar Elad-Appelbaum and Martin Samuel Cohen

Gratitude Prayer, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor on the first anniversary of the Pittsburgh Tree of Life massacre (2019)

A prayer on the first anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry, Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror

Tags: 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Gratitude

Contributor(s): Menachem Creditor

A Prayer for the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

A prayer in solidarity with the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, whose building was the target of hateful vandalism. . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-fascist, English vernacular prayer, Iowa, Iowa City, solidarity, standing together

Contributor(s): Menachem Creditor

סדר לאבד פסלי עבודה זרה | Service for Destroying Idolatrous Statues, by Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (2020)

The argument that “statues preserve our heritage” is not one the halakhah tolerates, especially when the statues are celebrating the perpetrators of horrible atrocities. Here’s a service for those interested in fulfilling the Biblical commandment of destroying idolatrous statues. #BLM . . .

Categories: Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-fascist actions, Black Lives Matter, George Floyd protests, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials

Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

I can’t breathe, We can’t breathe, Earth can’t breathe, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2020)

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere. . . .

Categories: Ecotastrophes, Epidemics & Pandemics, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags: 2020 coronavirus pandemic, 2020 United States racial reckoning, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah, English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical elohai neshamah, paraliturgical nishmat kol ḥai, Prayers as poems, September 2020 Western United States wildfires

Contributor(s): Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

Who Can’t Breathe? Three Outcries and a Prayer, by Rabbi Arthur Waskow (the Shalom Center 2021)

A prayer-poem by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in 2021 reflecting on our difficulty breathing, as a society, as humanity, and as a interconnected, interbreathing biosphere. . . .

Categories: Ecotastrophes, Epidemics & Pandemics, Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Contributor(s): Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

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"The statue of Robert E. Lee in Richmond during a Black Lives Matter protest in June 2020" (credit: Ron Frazier, license: CC BY)

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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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