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Terror

This is an archive of prayers composed in response to or in anxious anticipation of an attack intended to invoke communal terror and distress.

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 Israel, Tishrei 5784 by Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations, 12 October 2023)

A prayer for Israel offered by the Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, Efraim Mirvis on 12 October 2023, in the aftermath of the massacres perpetrated by HAMA”S and their allies in Gaza on the residents and citizens of the State of Israel on Shemini Atseret 5784. The prayer was originally published on the website of the Office of the Chief Rabbi and disseminated via its social media accounts.

Categories:

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M.

Contributor(s):

Ephraim Mirvis and Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations

הושע נא | Hosha-na [after the war begun on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Rabbi Annie Lewis (10 October 2023)

This litany of Hoshana’ot was written by Rabbi Annie Lewis. Hebrew translation by Shoshana Michael Zucker.

Categories:

Conflicts over Sovereignty and Dispossession, Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Hebrew translation, הושענות hoshanot, Needing Vocalization

Contributor(s):

Annie Lewis and Shoshana Michael Zucker (translation)

דָּם זְכַרְיָה מְבַכֶּה | The blood of Zekhariah cries out, a qinah by Aryeh Baruch

As I was in NYC, I first heard the news of the pogrom with which Hamas opened the war between Hallel and the Torah reading on Shemini Atseret. The beginnings of what is now the final stanza of this… I am unsure whether to refer to it as a qinah or a piyut first stirred in my soul during Tefillat Geshem, and the refrain of that stanza during Hakafot that evening. Prayer and song, no matter how joyous, has taken on a somber, cutting, desperate edge for me in this new world where the safety I had once taken for granted was revealed to be an illusion, which is reflected in taking from the phrases taken from the liturgy of the Yomim Nora’im.

Categories:

Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Hebrew translation, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Aryeh Baruch

אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים לְנִשְׁמוֹת תּוֹשָׁבֵי מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל מֶהַיִשּׁוּבֵי עוֹטֵף עַזָּה | El Malé Raḥamim for the residents of the State of Israel from the communities on the Gaza Border, by Cantor Amnon Seelig

This is an El Malé Raḥamim prayer by Cantor Amnon Seelig for the victims of the invasion of HAMA”S from Gaza on Shemini Atseret 5784, with an English translation by Rabbi Oren Steinitz.

Categories:

After the Aliyot, Mourning, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., אל מלא רחמים El Malé Raḥamim

Contributor(s):

Oren Steinitz (translation) and Amnon Seelig

Prayer [after the massacres on Shemini Atseret 5784], by Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed

This prayer was offered by Dr. Melila Hellner-Eshed in the days following the attacks of Ḥamas and its allies from Gaza on southern Israel beginning Shemini Atseret 5784 (7 October 2023). The English translation was made Rabbi Zac Kamenetz and Rabbi Marc Margolius.

Categories:

Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Contributor(s):

Zac Kamenetz (translation), Marc Margolius (translation) and Melila Hellner-Eshed

יזכור לחללי טבח שמחת תורה | Yizkor for the Victims of the Simḥat Torah Massacre, by Rabbi Binyamin Holtzman (2023)

This Yizkor prayer for the victims of October 7th 2023, was written by Rabbi Binyamin Holzman and first published on the website Geluyah on 7 November 2023. The English translation was made by an unknown translator and set side-by-side with the Hebrew source by the Shalom Hartman Institute.

Categories:

Mourning, Pogroms & Genocide, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., יזכור yizkor

Contributor(s):

Unknown (translation) and Binyamin Holtzman

Upon My Heart, a prayer-poem by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

“Upon My Heart” was offered by Rabbi Menachem Creditor and shared via the Open Siddur Project discussion group on 20 November 2023. The added hashtag “#bringthemhomenow” helps to contextualize the prayer-poem, as written to express the yearning for the return of the captives taken hostage during the 7 October massacres by HAMA”S and its allies.

Categories:

Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., captives, English vernacular prayer, North American Jewry, Prayers as poems

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר־עָשָׂה לְךָ חָמָאס | Remember That Which Hamas Did, an adaptation on the liturgical reminder to obliterate Amaleq by Aryeh Barukh (2024)

A riff on the mitsvah to obliterate Amaleq in Parashat Zakhor, adapted to the horrors committed by HAMA”S and its allies on 7 October 2023.

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., addenda, vengeance, זכירות zekhirot

Contributor(s):

Aryeh Baruch

אֵיכָה יָשְׁבָה בָּדָד | Eikhah Yashvah Badad (O How She Sat Alone), a qinah by Nurit Hirschfeld-Skupinsky

The author of this qinah is a survivor of the slaughter in Kibbutz Nahal Oz. The qinah was first published in an article by Tamar Biala appearing in The Times of Israel, “O how she sat alone: New laments for a beloved land” on 4 August 2024, appended with the note: “These Lamentations will appear in Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash Vol. 2.”

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Yehudah Mirsky (translation) and Nurit Hirschfeld-Skupinsky

קינה על מאורעות חרבות ברזל | Qinah al Me’or’ot Ḥarvot Barzel, by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon (World Mizrachi Movement)

This qinah for the horrors of October 7th was written by Rabbi Yosef Zvi Rimon, president of World Mizrachi and first published to their website for the Nine Days (Rosh Ḥodesh Av to Tishah b’Av).

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., קינות Ḳinōt, religious Zionist prayers

Contributor(s):

Yosef Zvi Rimon

קִינָה לְאֶרֶץ אֲהוּבָה | Qinah l’Erets Ahuvah (Lamentation for a Beloved Land), by Liora Eilon

The author of this qinah is a survivor of the slaughter in Kibbutz Kfar Azza. The qinah was first published in an article by Tamar Biala appearing in The Times of Israel, “O how she sat alone: New laments for a beloved land” on 4 August 2024, appended with the note: “These Lamentations will appear in Dirshuni: Contemporary Women’s Midrash Vol. 2.”

Categories:

Tishah b'Av, Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Prayers after acts of terrible violence, קינות Ḳinōt

Contributor(s):

Yehudah Mirsky (translation) and Liora Eilon

אֵלֶּה אֶזְכְּרָה | These I Remember, a seliḥah before the anniversary of October 7th by Ze’ev Kainan

A selïhah piyyut for the massacres of 7 October prepared for Seliḥot services in advance of the first anniversary of 7 October.

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Slavery & Captivity, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., פיוטים piyyuṭim, rhyming translation, סליחות səliḥot

Contributor(s):

Ze'ev Kainan

יְהִי רָצוֹן מִלְּפָּנֶיךָ | Prayer for an End to Injustice on Earth

This “Prayer for an end to injustice on Earth” by an anonymous author, was first published in בצרור החיים: A Yizkor Supplement for Palestinian Life (Halachic Left 2024), pages 34-35.

Categories:

Pogroms & Genocide, Terror, War

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., anti-predatory, ארץ ישראל Erets Yisrael, Israeli–Palestinian conflict, Needing Translation (into Arabic), Universal Peace

Contributor(s):

Justin Kerber (translation), Anonymous and Halachic Left

Prayer Following the Heaton Park Synagogue Terror Attack on Yom Kippur 5786, by Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis (Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations, 4 October 2025)

The Office of the Chief Rabbi’s prayer on the day following the terror attack in Manchester on Yom Kippur 5786 (2025).

Categories:

Terror

Tags:

21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., British Jewry, English vernacular prayer, Manchester synagogue attack

Contributor(s):

Ephraim Mirvis and Office of the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations

A Prayer for the Shabbat After Bondi Beach, by Rabbi Menachem Creditor

“A Prayer for the Shabbat After Bondi Beach” by Rabbi Menachem Creditor was offered via Open Siddur Project’s discussion group on Facebook, 19 December 2025, in response to the Bondi Beach shootings in Sydney, Australia on 14 December 2025.

Categories:

Mass Shootings & Gun Violence, Terror

Tags:

2025 Bondi Beach shooting, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., Australian Jewry, English vernacular prayer

Contributor(s):

Menachem Creditor

מי שברך לעוסקות ועוסקים במלאכת תיעוד הפגיעות המיניות ומעשי הקינוסייד ב 7.10 | Mi sheBerakh (a protective prayer) for those documenting the atrocities of 7 October 2023

This mi sheberakh prayer was offered by Rabbi Gila Caine for those reviewing and compiling the documentary evidence of the depraved violence committed by HAMA”S and its allies on 7 October 2023.

Categories:

After the Aliyot, Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, Well-being, health, and caregiving, Pogroms & Genocide, Terror

Tags:

2023-2025 Israel–Hamas war, 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., מי שברך mi sheberakh

Contributor(s):

Gila Caine

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ויהי נעם אדני אלהינו עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננה עלינו ומעשה ידינו כוננהו׃ (תהלים צ:יז) · "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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