This is an archive of prayers composed in response to, or in anxious anticipation of, war. Click here to contribute a prayer you have written, or a transcription and translation of a historical prayer. Filter resources by Collaborator Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
This prayer appears to have been issued for Jewish soldiers serving in the German army at the start of World War Ⅰ and was recited in the synagogues in Fürth, Germany in 1914. The prayer was printed as a single leaflet by the printer Druck von Lehrberger & Co. in Frankfurt am Main. A leaflet ended up in the Central Chabad Lubavitch Library in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NY (Card #87119), although no explanation has been offered how a Chasidic group based in Russia came to acquire this work. The original leaflet was digitized and made accessible via the Chabad library website. . . . “Prayer for Sailors and Soldiers on Active Service,” was likely written by Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz and published at the outset of the Prayer Book for Jewish Sailors and Soldiers [of H.M. Forces] (Office of the Chief Rabbi 1914), p. 5. . . . “Prayer Composed by the Chief Rabbi on the Declaration of War. (August 1914.),” by Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz, was published in the Prayer Book for Jewish Sailors and Soldiers [of H.M. Forces] (Office of the Chief Rabbi 1914), p. 32. . . . “Prayer for Our Country” by Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick was selected by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron for inclusion in his World War Ⅰ era prayerbook, Side Arms: Readings, Prayers and Meditations for Soldiers and Sailors (1918), on pages 27-28. The prayer is printed unchanged from its original publication in The Challenge of the Present Crisis (H.E. Fosdick 1917), pp. 46-47. . . . “[Prayer] for those at home,” a variation of a prayer by Rev. Howard A. Bridgman (1860-1929), is found adapted (without Christian god-language) by Rabbi Morris S. Lazaron in his World War Ⅰ era prayerbook, Side Arms: Readings, Prayers and Meditations for Soldiers and Sailors (1918), on page 25. The original version of the prayer was first published in The Service Song Book (Young Men’s Christian Associations 1917), pp. 86 in the abridged edition. . . . “Dedication of Monument for War Heroes” was written and delivered by Rabbi Jacob Bosniak at the dedication of a war memorial at Ocean Parkway, “near Fort Hamilton Parkway,” Brooklyn, in 1924. The prayer was first published in Rabbi Bosniak’s לקוטי תפלות Liḳutei Tefilot: Pulpit and Public Prayers (1927), pp. 108-109. We are not familiar with any war memorials in the vicinity of Ocean Parkway near Fort Hamilton Parkway that were dedicated in 1924. (The Theodore Roosevelt Memorial dedicated by veterans of the Spanish-American War in 1924 can be found just off of Ocean Parkway on the southern edge of Asser Levy Park, but that is a far distance from Fort Hamilton Parkway. Perhaps it had been relocated at some point?) If you know the exact location of this memorial, please leave a comment, or contact us. . . . |
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