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:	State v. Chauvin, 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, 2020 United States racial reckoning, 21st century C.E.
	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:	English vernacular prayer, paraliturgical nishmat kol ḥai, paraliturgical elohai neshamah, 2020 coronavirus pandemic, אלהי נשמה Elohai neshamah, September 2020 Western United States wildfires, 2020 United States racial reckoning, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers as poems
	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:	58th century A.M., Black Lives Matter, George Floyd protests, anti-fascist actions, Removal of Confederate monuments and memorials, 21st century C.E.
	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 . . .

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:	Gratitude, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
	A prayer on the first anniversary of the Tree of Life massacre in Pittsburgh. . . .

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:	קינות Ḳinnot, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., welcome the immigrant, United States Immigration Policy, Immigration policy of Donald Trump, אוי oy
	A ḳinnah composed in response to the agonizing and cruel United States immigration policy implemented under the presidency of Donald Trump. . . .

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:	mass murder inside a synagogue, 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, קינות Ḳinnot, martyrdom, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after acts of terrible violence
	A ḳinah for the martyrs of the Tree of Life synagogue massacre in Boston in 2018. . . .

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:	prayers for municipalities, Christchurch mosque shootings, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M.
	A prayer written in response to the massacre of Muslim worshipers during Friday prayers in Christchurch, New Zealand. . . .

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:	21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, solidarity, anti-fascist, standing together, Iowa City, Iowa
	A prayer in solidarity with the Greater Iowa City Church of the Nazarene, whose building was the target of hateful vandalism. . . .

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:	United States, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after acts of terrible violence, prayers for municipalities, mass murder inside a synagogue, 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
	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:	20th century C.E., Community, 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, Problematic prayers, fellowship, American Jewry of the United States, love your fellow as yourself, Trenton Six
	A prayer “in spring” that uses the metaphor of mining for seeking out the goodness in one’s fellow. . . .

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