Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶּקט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ

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.
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For prayers offered in the event of an attack intended to invoke communal terror, go here.
For prayers offered in the event of imminent communal danger and distress, go here.
For prayers offered in the event of a pogrom or other genocidal atrocity, go here.
For prayers offered in response to conflicts over sovereignty and dispossession, go here.
For prayers composed for social justice, peace, and liberty, go here.

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

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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. . . .

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

Contributor(s):

Arthur Waskow and the Shalom Center

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Isaac Gantwerk Mayer

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

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

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 . . .

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

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Jonathan Perlman, Tamar Elad-Appelbaum and Martin Samuel Cohen

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Aryeh Cohen

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Stephen Belsky

Categories:

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

Tags:

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

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. . . .

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

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Avraham Samuel Soltes

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

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

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

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

Contributor(s):

Aharon N. Varady (transcription) and Abraham Cronbach

Categories:

Hateful Intolerance, Prejudice, and Bigotry

Tags:

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

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. . . .