tagged: 80th Congress • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ https://opensiddur.org/tagged/080th-congress/ a community-grown, libre Open Access archive of Jewish prayer and liturgical resources Tue, 15 Sep 2026 05:59:04 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.1 https://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Open-Siddur-Project-Logo-2015-5509b4bdv1_site_icon-250x250.png tagged: 80th Congress • the Open Siddur Project ✍ פְּרוֺיֶקְט הַסִּדּוּר הַפָּתוּחַ https://opensiddur.org/tagged/080th-congress/ 32 32 Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Max Raisin on 30 January 1947 https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/opening-prayers-for-legislative-bodies/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-house-of-representatives-max-raisin-on-30-january-1947/ https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/opening-prayers-for-legislative-bodies/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-house-of-representatives-max-raisin-on-30-january-1947/#respond Tue, 20 Feb 2024 02:41:58 +0000 https://opensiddur.org/?p=54355 Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Max Raisin, pastor emeritus, B’nai Jeshurun, Paterson, New Jersey
Date of Prayer: 30 January 1947
Sponsor: Rep. Gordon Canfield (R-NJ)
Contribute a translation Source (English)
We rise to offer prayer to Almighty God
as this august lawmaking body
is about to resume its labors.
We do so with hearts filled with gratitude
for the manifold mercies Thou hast shown
to our beloved land
and the American people.
Thou hast prospered our work
materially and spiritually,
and in the grim struggle
through which we have just passed
Thou hast strengthened our arms
and hast finally blest us with victory.
We pray that we may continue to enjoy
the favor of Thy guidance and inspiration
that these United States may go on
from spiritual strength to spiritual strength
and from moral triumph to moral triumph.
May we prove ourselves
no less strong in peace than in war.
May we organize for peace wisely,
with stout hearts and unflinching spirits,
and may we, as a nation, so live as to set an example
of fair dealing and righteous living,
of charity and compassion,
to the end that international peace
become a permanent condition,
and men everywhere
will dwell in peace and security,
each under his vine and fig tree,
with none to make him afraid.
O God, we thank Thee
for the new hope kindled in the world
that mankind may now look to an era of brotherliness and good will.
Let us not, through selfishness or folly,
dim the vision for a better and happier world
now cherished by countless millions.
Teach us to be at peace
with ourselves
and with one another.
Sanctify us through Thy commandments
as we perform them day by day,
and may we of this blessed land
apply ourselves steadfastly
to the healing of the wounds
and the rebuilding of the shattered lives
of our fellow men in less fortunate lands.
Bless the President of the United States
and the members of his Cabinet;
Bless the Senate,
this House of Representatives,
the judiciary,
and all who are connected with the Government.
Bless them all
with health and strength of body
and with wisdom and fortitude of spirit,
that they may carry on worthily and fittingly
the important tasks of their exalted offices.
Through their efforts,
may this Government become ever more
a government of laws,
laws nobly conceived,
wisely framed,
and affording the largest amount of good
to the largest number of people.
In Thee we trust, O Father,
and may the words of our mouths
and the meditations of our hearts
be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord,
our strength and our Redeemer.
Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the first month of the first session of the 80th US Congress in the House of Representatives. The source images of the prayer were copied by Howard Mortman and shared via his @CongressRabbi Twitter account. All credit to Howard Mortman for his research in digging up this prayer. Unfortunately, neither the source images nor his tweets provide an exact citation reference to the volume, issue, and page number of the Congressional Record in which the prayer was published. If you know, leave a comment, or contact us.

Source(s)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain (Max Raisin, 30 January 1947) – a

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain (Max Raisin, 30 January 1947) – b

 

]]> https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/opening-prayers-for-legislative-bodies/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-house-of-representatives-max-raisin-on-30-january-1947/feed/ 0 Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck on 12 February 1948 https://opensiddur.org/prayers/civic-calendar/us-civil-calendar/abraham-lincoln-birthday/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-house-of-representatives-leo-baeck-on-12-february-1948/ https://opensiddur.org/prayers/civic-calendar/us-civil-calendar/abraham-lincoln-birthday/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-house-of-representatives-leo-baeck-on-12-february-1948/#respond Mon, 05 Feb 2024 14:27:28 +0000 https://opensiddur.org/?p=54108 Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck, former chief rabbi of Berlin, Germany
Date of Prayer: 12 February 1948
Sponsor: n/a
Contribute a translation Source (English)
Our Father, our God,
we pray unto Thee on this day
on which sixscore and nineteen years ago
was born that man who came to be Thy servant,
“the man in whom is the spirit,” (Numbers 27:18)
and who for the sake of this land
became witness and testimony of humanity,
herald of Thy command and Thy promise,
to the everlasting blessing of this country
and of mankind.
Our Father,
day by day Thou sendest forth Thy messengers, Thy angels—
our chances to be unselfish and righteous,
our opportunities to walk in Thy ways—
they are the messengers that come from Thee.
We must not miss them
nor disregard them.
Almighty God,
Thou choosest people and selectest nations
“to bring them into the place
which Thou hast prepared”; (Exodus 15:17)
Thou changest the times and the seasons;
Thou makest history enter the world.
Thy servant, Abraham Lincoln,
in a message to Congress, said,
“We cannot escape history,”[1] Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress, 1 December 1862. 
so help us, O God,
that we may not evade history,
but may we be granted history.
Reverently I pray Thee
to bless Congress,
its men, and its days.
From the bottom of my heart I pray:
God bless America.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the second month of the second session of the 80th US Congress. The prayer was published in the Congressional Record—House (1948): p. 1275. The source images of the prayer were copied by Howard Mortman and shared via his @CongressRabbi Twitter account. Providing on this prayer, Dr. Michael A. Meyer in Rabbi Leo Baeck: Living a Religious Imperative in Troubled Times (2020) wrote:

The greatest honor that accrued to Baeck during his visit was the invitation to deliver the opening prayer at a session of the U.S. House of Representatives. Although more than fifty rabbis had preceded him (the first being in 1860), it was a privilege not previously bestowed upon a non–North American rabbi.[2] Find Howard Mortman, When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020).  It was especially meaningful to Baeck that the date chosen— prob ably by chance— was the anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Baeck had long admired the American Civil War president for his integrity and courage. When he visited Washington in 1930, he declared the Lincoln Memorial the most beautiful site in the city. While in New York, he spent some time in Harlem, “the local Negro area.” In 1940 in Berlin, he had read anew Lincoln’s “magnificent” Gettysburg Address, and had noted in a letter that at its end, Lincoln expressed the hope “that this nation, under God, shall have new birth of freedom.” To which Baeck added, with scarcely veiled reference to Germany: “The question is there. The answer?”[3] Letter to Hans-Hasso von Veltheim-Ostrau, 31 December 1940, in Werke 6: 611.  Now he was given the opportunity to express his great re spect for Lincoln and at the same time to include in his prayer a central ele ment of his own religious philosophy:

Encapsulated in this invocation is Baeck’s conviction that a transcendent element is always present as history’s driving force for good, though the source of that force be shrouded in mystery. In Baeck’s words: “It is not that which is limited, that which arises from the human world, but rather it is the divine that makes history.”[4] Das Wesen des Judentums, in Werke 1: 258.  According to Baeck’s interpretation, when Lincoln said that “we cannot escape history,” he was saying in essence that we are unable to evade the divine moral imperative that, through responsive human action, drives history forward. After the tragedy that the world had just experienced, Lincoln’s words that we cannot escape history served Baeck as a prelude to his own fervent hope for a divinely inspired history that would move humanity toward a better time.

Source(s)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain (Leo Baeck 12 February 1948)

 

Notes

Notes
1 Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress, 1 December 1862.
2 Find Howard Mortman, When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill (Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2020).
3 Letter to Hans-Hasso von Veltheim-Ostrau, 31 December 1940, in Werke 6: 611.
4 Das Wesen des Judentums, in Werke 1: 258.
]]> https://opensiddur.org/prayers/civic-calendar/us-civil-calendar/abraham-lincoln-birthday/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-house-of-representatives-leo-baeck-on-12-february-1948/feed/ 0 Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Herman Eliot Snyder on 28 April 1948 https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/opening-prayers-for-legislative-bodies/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-senate-herman-eliot-snyder-on-28-april-1948/ https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/opening-prayers-for-legislative-bodies/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-senate-herman-eliot-snyder-on-28-april-1948/#respond Sun, 28 Apr 2024 02:59:56 +0000 https://opensiddur.org/?p=55656 Guest Chaplain: Rabbi Herman Eliot Snyder, Sinai Temple, Springfield, Massachusetts
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 28 April 1948

Contribute a translation Source (English)
We pray unto our God
who instilled His spirit in all humanity.
Thou didst teach us
the common brotherhood of man.
Thou didst reveal Thyself
as the emancipator of the enslaved.
Thou didst instruct us to worship Thee
in acts of loving kindness and justice.
We pray that our beloved Nation may be preserved
as a citadel of righteousness,
as the protagonist of justice,
and as a constant example of human kindness and mercy.
We pray that we may be instruments of Thy will
in establishing Thy kingdom on earth,
to the end that people everywhere
may live in peace and security
without fear of the tomorrows to come.
Protect Thou and inspire
the guardians of our liberties and freedom,
that the generations to come
may bless their vision and devotion.
Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the fourth month of the second session of the 80th US Congress in the Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 94, part 4 (28 April 1948), page 4922.

Source(s)

Congressional Record, vol. 94, part 4 (28 April 1948), p. 4922

 

]]> https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/opening-prayers-for-legislative-bodies/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-us-senate-herman-eliot-snyder-on-28-april-1948/feed/ 0 Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. Senate: Rabbi Dr. Joshua Loth Liebman on 19 May 1948 https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/united-states-of-america/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-u-s-senate-joshua-loth-liebman-on-19-may-1948/ https://opensiddur.org/prayers/collective-welfare/nations/united-states-of-america/prayer-of-the-guest-chaplain-of-the-u-s-senate-joshua-loth-liebman-on-19-may-1948/#respond Thu, 18 Jun 2026 21:25:40 +0000 https://opensiddur.org/?p=67785 Congressional Record, vol. 94 part 5 (19 May 1948), pp. 6051-6052. ]]> Guest Chaplain: Dr. Joshua Loth Liebman, rabbi, Temple Israel, Boston, Massachusetts
Sponsor: n/a
Date of Prayer: 19 May 1948

Contribute a translation Source (English)
O God, Father of all men,
we thank Thee
for this great Senate of democracy
in this hallowed America.
Cause us to understand
that laws are given
that men shall live by them[1] Leviticus 18:5 
and not die by them.[2] Yoma 85b.3 
Inspire these lawgivers
to make America an ever more beautiful gem of earth
where cooperation shall be the dream
and equal justice the dynamic goal—
America thus the example to all the world.
Cause us to realize
that now all nations,
from the oldest unto the newest, Israel,[3] The Israeli Declaration of Independence was announced only five days prior, on 14 May 1948. 
dwell today on the same street of atomic destiny,
and therefore we must live and work together
so that our children’s children
shall have a planet to inherit.
God,
enable these architects of law
to build the wider mansion of human welfare—
Thy kingdom on earth
where all Thy children shall live together
“for the blessing of all
and the hurt of none,
for the joy of all
and the woe of none.”[4] A quotable phrase from an address offered before Hadassah on 25 October 1947 by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (head of the American section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council). “A positive decision at the United Nations will be a victory for the United States and for the Soviet Union… These two great powers have been brought together on the Palestine issue while they fail to see eye to eye on almost every other issue. For the Jewish people, an affirmative decision will mean the beginning of a new epoch in history. The manner in which the Arab peoples react to the decision of the United Nations will also have great consequences for them. It may mean prolonged and costly conflict which will benefit no one, or it may mean cooperating for the regeneration of the entire Near East for the blessing of all and the hurt of none.” 
Amen.

This prayer of the guest chaplain was offered in the fifth month of the second session of the 80th US Senate, and published in the Congressional Record, vol. 94 part 5 (19 May 1948), pp. 6051-6052.

Source(s)

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain – Joshua Loth Liebman (Senate, 19 May 1948), p. 6051

Prayer of the Guest Chaplain – Joshua Loth Liebman (Senate, 19 May 1948), p. 6052

 

Notes

Notes
1 Leviticus 18:5
2 Yoma 85b.3
3 The Israeli Declaration of Independence was announced only five days prior, on 14 May 1948.
4 A quotable phrase from an address offered before Hadassah on 25 October 1947 by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (head of the American section of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and chairman of the American Zionist Emergency Council). “A positive decision at the United Nations will be a victory for the United States and for the Soviet Union… These two great powers have been brought together on the Palestine issue while they fail to see eye to eye on almost every other issue. For the Jewish people, an affirmative decision will mean the beginning of a new epoch in history. The manner in which the Arab peoples react to the decision of the United Nations will also have great consequences for them. It may mean prolonged and costly conflict which will benefit no one, or it may mean cooperating for the regeneration of the entire Near East for the blessing of all and the hurt of none.”
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