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 Name Filter resources by Tag Filter resources by Category Filter resources by Language Filter resources by Date Range
This prayer by Rabbi Sabato Morais was offered in conclusion to a sermon delivered at some point days after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln on 15 April 1865, and reprinted in The Philadelphia Inquirer on 20 November 1865. The time of the assassination corresponded to motsei shabbat and the beginning of the 6th day of Passover 5625, and so we can imagine this prayer having been delivered at some point over the remaining two festival days of Pesaḥ, on April 17th or 18th. The prayer was preserved by Rabbi Morais in his ledger (page 24, clipping 029), an archive of newsclippings recording material he contributed to the press, among other announcements. (Many thanks to the Library of the University of Pennsylvania for helping to make this resource accessible.) Next to the clipping, Rabbi Sabato has written, “Andrew Johnson proved anything but a worthy successor to the sainted Abraham Lincoln.” Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer by Rabbi Arnold Kiss for the kingdom of Hungary in a time of national crisis, “Országos bánat, közös baj idején,” was first published in his anthology of prayers for Jewish women, Mirjam (1897) on p.289-291. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A Prayer for American Victory in the Spanish-American War by Rabbi Joshua Seigel (1846-1910), New York: Eliakum Zunser, [1898]. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer offered by Rabbi Dr. Moses Gaster, chief rabbi of the S&P Congregations of Britain on Yom Kippur, 30 September 1914 (10 Tishrei 5675), is found under the title, תפלה על מלחמה (Prayer for the time of War). The prayer was published in a short prayer-pamphlet entitled תפלה לעת מצוה (a prayer “For the Time When Thou Mayest Be Found” [Psalms 32׃6]). Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): 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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “[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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): “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. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A hymn for the end of war by Rabbi Max D. Klein. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer, entitled “[Prayer for] Unity,” was published in The Jewish Peace Book for Home and School (1932) under “Section III: Peace Devotions for Jewish Use — Prayers for Peace” on page 100. Following the prayer, Rabbi Cronbach notes the prayer is “from Peace Service, compiled by [the] National Council for the Prevention of War (NCPW).” The prayer reads to me as alternative formulation of the prayer Shfokh Ḥamatkha offered at the traditional pouring of Elijah’s cup before the Pesaḥ seder’s Hallel service. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer for victory and deliverance in the war against Nazi Germany, simply titled “War Prayer,” appears in the Prayer Book of Jewish Members of H.M. Forces (Office of the Chief Rabbi 1940), pp. 16-17. Sections of the prayer were adapted from the prayer on the declaration of war by Rabbi Hertz in 1914 at the outset of World War I. In the preface to the payer book, Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz specifically mentions this prayer, among others, as having been newly revised for this publication. The initial version of the prayer, likely to have been written by Rabbi Hertz, was published by the Office of the Chief Rabbi for a 17 Tammuz service in July 1938. A revision was disseminated after Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938). This is the third version of the prayer. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): A memorial prayer for service members lost in times of war, given by a chaplain who sacrificed his life for others during WWII. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 5 June 1944 on the eve of D-Day in World War Ⅱ. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): This prayer by Rabbi Philip S. Bernstein, then President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), p. 11. Categories: Tags: Contributor(s): |
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