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20th century C.E. —⟶ tag: 20th century C.E. Sorted Chronologically (old to new). Sort most recent first? 📖 תְּפִלּוֹת וּזְמִרוֹת לִכְבוֹד שַׁבָּת | Sabbath Eve Services and Hymns, a Friday night prayerbook compiled and arranged by Rabbi Sidney Guthman and Robert Segal (1944)A Friday night siddur compiled by two Conservative movement rabbis for use in traditional leaning congregations familiar with Reform movement arrangements. Besides containing four alternative services for Friday nights, the prayerbook also contains extensive musical notation for congregational participation in singing liturgical melodies and hymns. . . . Categories: Shabbat Siddurim Contributor(s): Sidney S. Guthman, Robert H. Segal and Aharon N. Varady (digital imaging and document preparation) 💬 מְגִילַּת הִיטְלֶיר | Megillat Hitler — a Purim Sheni scroll for French Armistice Day [after World War Ⅱ] by Asher P. Ḥassine (Casablanca, 1943)A megillah attesting to the terrible events of World War II from the vantage of North African Jewry in Casablanca. . . . Categories: Extracanonical Megillot, Modern Miscellany, 🌐 Armistice Day Readings, Purim Sheni Readings Contributor(s): Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (transcription & naqdanut) and Isaac Gantwerk Mayer (translation) A Declaration of Interdependence co-authored during WW II as part of an interfaith Jewish-Christian response to fascism and “to mitigate racial and religious animosity in America.” . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 5 June 1944 on the eve of D-Day in World War Ⅱ. . . . “Interdependence” by Dorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) was originally written for the 50th Anniversary of the World’s Young Women’s Christian Association, 19 November 1944. The prayer was included by Rabbi Morrison David Bial in his anthology, An Offering of Prayer (1962), p. 55. It’s likely that Rabbi Bial first read the prayer in an anthology of prayer by Stephen Hole Fritchman, Prayers of the Free Spirit (1945), p. 38. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week Arranged and translated by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, the Sabbath Prayer Book is the first Reconstructionist prayerbook we know of to have entered the Public Domain. . . . Categories: Shabbat Siddurim 📖 מנחת תודה | Minḥat Todah :: Service for Thanksgiving Day, arranged by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1945)A special service prepared by Rabbi David de Sola Pool for Thanksgiving Day in the United States at K.K. Shearith Israel and published by the Union of Sephardic Congregations in 1945. . . . Categories: Seder for Thanksgiving Day (United States) הַנּוֹתֵן תְּשׁוּעָה | Prayer for the Government on Thanksgiving Day, offered by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1945)The Prayer for the Government offered by Rabbi David de Sola Pool in his service for Thanksgiving Day in 1945. . . . The essay, “Prayer,” by Rabbi Dr. Abraham Joshua Heschel, then Associate Professor of Jewish Philosophy at Hebrew Union College, published in Review of Religion vol. 9 no. 2, January 1945. . . . Categories: Pedagogical Essays on Jewish Prayer God’s Goodness — the Testament of America, a prayer for Thanksgiving Day by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1945)“God’s Goodness — the Testament of America” by Rabbi Milton Steinberg appears on pages 559-560 of The Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) as part of a service for Thanksgiving Day. It is the last of four “testaments,” the other three being the testament of Nature, Man, and Israel, respectively. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November) God’s Goodness — the Testament of [Am] Yisrael, a prayer for Thanksgiving Day by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1945)“God’s Goodness — the Testament of Israel” by Rabbi Milton Steinberg appears on page 558 of The Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) as part of a service for Thanksgiving Day. It is the last of four “testaments,” the other three being the testament of Nature, Man, and America respectively. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November) God’s Goodness — the Testament of Man, a prayer for Thanksgiving Day by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1945)“God’s Goodness — the Testament of Man” by Rabbi Milton Steinberg appears on pages 556-557 of The Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) as part of a service for Thanksgiving Day. It is the last of four “testaments,” the other three being the testament of Nature, Israel, and America respectively. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November) God’s Goodness — the Testament of Nature, a prayer for Thanksgiving Day by Rabbi Milton Steinberg (1945)“God’s Goodness — the Testament of Nature” by Rabbi Milton Steinberg appears on pages 553-556 of The Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) as part of a service for Thanksgiving Day. It is the last of four “testaments,” the other three being the testament of Man, Israel, and America respectively. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Thanksgiving Day (4th Thursday of November) מי שברך לתקופת יום הולדת | Mi sheBerakh on behalf of one celebrating a birthday, by Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan (1945)“Prayer in behalf of one celebrating a birthday,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 494-497 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945) . . . Life Is What We Make It, a prayer-poem based on the writings of Rabbi Leo Baeck by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)A prayer-poem by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan based on the writings of Rabbi Leo Baeck, as published in the Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p.426-7. . . . Categories: Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation Salvation through Labor, a prayer for the Sabbath before Labor Day, adapted from the writings of A.D. Gordon by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)“Salvation through Labor,” adapted by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan from the writings of Aaron David Gordon, can be found on p. 548-551 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). The translation was attributed in the Sabbath Prayer Book to its editors (Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn, assisted by Ira Eisenstein and Milton Steinberg). . . . “That Religion Be Not a Cloak for Hypocrisy,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 435-5 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . . Categories: Tishah b'Av, 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th), Repenting, Resetting, and Reconciliation, Roleplaying Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., communal shame, corruption, difference disagreement and deviance, English vernacular prayer, false piety, חלול ה׳ Ḥillul Hashem, improper use of the crown, inclusion and exclusion, labor exploitation, Psalms 5, religious hypocrisy, tolerance and intolerance “That America’s Heroes Shall Not Have Died in Vain” with a special El Malé Raḥamim prayer for Memorial Day, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)A service and prayer for Memorial Day in the United States, containing a variation of El Malé Raḥamim, by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Memorial Day (last Monday of May) That America Fulfil the Promise of Its Founding, a prayer for Independence Day by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan (1945)A prayer for Independence Day in the United States by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, prefaced by an abridged reading of the Declaration of Independence. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Independence Day (July 4th) “God the Life of Nature” by Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan was first published in his Sabbath Prayer Book (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1945), p. 382-391, where it appears side-by-side with its translation into Hebrew by Abraham Regelson. . . . Categories: Rosh Ḥodesh Contributor(s): Abraham Regelson (translation), Mordecai Kaplan and Aharon N. Varady (transcription) הִנֵּה שָׁם אֶמְצָאֶךָּ | Where We Can Find Yah, a prayer-poem by Eugene Kohn (1945) inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali (Song Offerings, 1912)“Where We Can Find God,” a prayer-poem inspired by passages appearing in David Frishman’s Hebrew translation of Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali. . . . Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., אנה אמצאך ana emtsaeka, cosmic religion, is it Sikh or Hassidic?, Prayers as poems, universalist prayers Contributor(s): Eugene Kohn, David Frischmann (translation), Rabindranath Tagore and Aharon N. Varady (transcription) A civic prayer for the Sabbath occurring during Brotherhood Week (February 19th-28th) in the United States. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th), 🇺🇸 George Washington's Birthday (3rd Monday of February), 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week A prayer for peace from the end of World War II. . . . 💬 Preamble and Introduction to the United Nations Charter (1945) | מבוא לאמנת האומות המאוחדות (Hebrew trans., 1949)The Preamble (followed by the first article of the first chapter) of the Charter of the United Nations from 1945 translated into Hebrew by the State of Israel in 1949. . . . “Courage to Withstand the Ridicule of the Worldly,” by Rabbi Mordecai Menaḥem Kaplan can be found on p. 433-4 of his The Sabbath Prayer Book (New York: The Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, 1945). . . . Categories: Bedtime Shema, Labor, Fulfillment, and Parnasah, 🌐 International Workers' Day (May 1st), Well-being, health, and caregiving The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 26 February 1945. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week, 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies 💬 Iwo Jima Memorial Address at Fifth Marine Division Cemetery, by Rabbi Chaplain Roland B. Gittelsohn (21 March 1945)A chaplain’s eulogy over the fallen soldiers of Iwo Jima (also known under the title, “The Highest and Purest Democracy”) . . . Categories: Modern Miscellany, 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week, 🇺🇸 Memorial (Decoration) Day Readings, 🌐 United Nations Day (October 24th) The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 6 June 1945. . . . This is an undated El Malé Raḥamim prayer for the victims of the Shoah translated into Dutch for a Yom Kippur ne’ilah service, likely sometime soon after the Holocaust had ended. To this I have added an English translation for those not fluent in Dutch or Hebrew. We are grateful to Shufra Judaica (Ellie Fisher and David Selis) for sharing a digital copy of this prayer. . . . Categories: 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust This prayer for a New World Order by Rabbi Dr. Mordecai Kaplan, representing many of the hopes of a United Nations after World War Ⅱ, was found by Mel Scult among Mordecai Kaplan’s papers and shared by Dr. Scult in a Facebook post. The prayer is undated, although we tentatively date it between 1945 and 1951. . . . Categories: 🌐 United Nations Day (October 24th) 📖 סדר תפלות ישראל (אשכנז) | Seder Tefilot Yisrael: Sabbath and Festival Prayer Book, compiled by the Rabbinical Assembly & United Synagogue of America (1946)The Rabbinical Assembly of America’s popular mid-20th century modern prayerbook for Conservative American Jewry based upon the work of Rabbi Morris Silverman. . . . The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 29 April 1946. . . . 📖 תפלות למועדים (מנהג הספרדים) | Tefilot l’Mo’adim, arranged and translated by Rabbi David de Sola Pool (1947)A bilingual Hebrew-English maḥzor for the festivals of Pesaḥ, Shavuot, and Sukkot (with Shmini Atseret and Simḥat Torah) in the Sepharadic tradition compiled by David de Sola Pool in 1947. . . . This prayer by Rabbi Dudley Weinberg, National Chaplain of AMVETS after World War II, was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), pp. 79-80. The prayer was chosen for publication by the then National Commander of AMVETS, Harold Russell. . . . A prayer for United Nations Day, the anniversary of the founding of the United Nations. . . . Closing Prayer for New Year’s Day, adapted by Mordecai Kaplan & Eugene Kohn from a prayer by Members of the Faculty of the Colgate Divinity School (1947)This “Closing Prayer” for New Year’s Day was adapted by Mordecai Kaplan and Eugene Kohn from a prayer first published by unnamed “Members of the Faculty” of the Colgate-Rochester Divinity School (The Colgate-Rochester Divinity School Bulletin, “Prayers for the New Year,” vol. 19 no. 2 (1947), pp. 65-71). Kaplan & Kohn’s adapted prayer essentially contains excerpts from the prayer of the Faculty (excluding any with explicit Christian content). The adapted prayer was published in The Faith of America: Readings, Songs, and Prayers for the Celebration of American Holidays (Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation 1951), p. 25-26. –Aharon Varady . . . Categories: 🌐 Gregorian New Year's Day (January 1st) Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Max Raisin on 30 January 1947The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on 30 January 1947. . . . A paraliturgical adaptation of the prayer/curse, “Shfokh Ḥamatekha,” this prayer, likely written during, or just after the Holocaust, recognizes those nations and righteous gentiles who fought and risked their lives to aid and rescue European Jewry. . . . Categories: Kristallnacht (9-10 November, 16 Marḥeshvan), 🌐 Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), 🇮🇱 Yom haShoah (27 Nisan), Barekh, 🇺🇸 Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust תפילה לשלום מדינת ישראל | Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, by Rabbi Yitsḥak haLevi Hertzog (1948)The Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel was composed by Rabbi Yitsḥak haLevi Hertzog, edited by S.Y. Agnon, and first published in the newspaper Ha-Tsofeh on 20 September 1948. . . . In September 1948, while editing Rabbi Yitshak haLevi Hertzog’s new Prayer for the Welfare of the State of Israel, S.Y. Agnon (1888-1970) drafted this adaptation. . . . Categories: 🇮🇱 Medinat Yisra'el (the State of Israel) 💬 Universal Declaration of Human Rights | אַלװעלטלעכע דעקלאַראַציע פֿון מענטשנרעכט | הַכְרָזָה לְכׇל בָּאֵי עוֹלָם בִּדְבַר זְכֻיוֹת הָאָדָם | Deklarasion Universal de Derechos Umanos (1948)The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English with its translations in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ladino. . . . Categories: 🇺🇳 United Nations, Modern Miscellany, 🇺🇸 Brotherhood Week, Addenda, 🌐 Day of Democracy (September 15th), 🌐 United Nations Day (October 24th), 🌐 Human Rights Day (December 10th) 💬 סדר לקריאת מגילת העצמאות | The Declaration of Independence of the State of Israel (1948), a service for its reading on Yom ha-Atsma’utJews have read sacred texts to commemorate miracles of redemption for a long time. Purim has Megilat Esther. Many communities read Megilat Antiochus or Megilat Yehudit for Ḥanukkah. But to many modern Jews, the most miraculous redemption in recent history was the founding of the state of Israel, as we commemorate on Yom ha-Atsma’ut. Like Purim, the story of the founding of Israel was entirely secular on a surface level, with no big showy miracles like a sea splitting or a mountain aflame. Like Ḥanukkah, a Jewish state in the Land of Israel won its independence against mighty forces allied in opposition. But we don’t have a megillah to read for Yom ha-Atsma’ut. Or do we? Just as Megillat Esther is said to be a letter written by Mordekhai to raise awareness of the events of Shushan, so too does the Israeli Scroll of Independence, Megilat ha-Atsma’ut, raise awareness of the events of the founding of the State of Israel. In this vein, I decided to create a cantillation system for Megilat ha-Atsma’ut. Ta’amei miqra were chosen attempting to follow Masoretic grammatical rules – since modern Hebrew has a different grammatical structure, the form is somewhat loose. Because of the thematic similarities to Purim, I chose Esther cantillation for the majority of the text. Just as some tragic lines in Esther are read in Eikhah cantillation, some lines regarding the Shoah or bearing grim portents for the wars to follow are to be sung in Eikhah cantillation. And the final phrases of chapters II and III are to be sung in the melody for the end of a book of the Ḥumash, or the Song of the Sea melody. They can be done in a call-and-response form, with the community reading and the reader repeating. . . . Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Dr. Leo Baeck on 12 February 1948The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. House of Representatives on Lincoln’s Birthday, 12 February 1948. . . . Categories: 🇺🇸 Abraham Lincoln's Birthday (February 12th), 🇺🇸 United States of America, Opening Prayers for Legislative Bodies The Opening Prayer given in the U.S. Senate on 28 April 1948. . . . 📖 הַסִּדּוּר הַשָּׁלֵם (אשכנז) | HaSiddur haShalem, a bilingual Hebrew-English prayerbook translated and annotated by Paltiel Birnbaum (1949)The first edition of the Daily Prayerbook, Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem, compiled and translated by Paltiel Birnbaum (Hebrew Publishing Co. 1949). . . . Categories: Comprehensive (Kol Bo) Siddurim 💬 שִׁיר הַשִּׁירִים | Shir haShirim (The Song of Songs), English translation by Paltiel Birnbaum (1949)Paltiel (Philip) Birnbaum’s translation of The Song of Songs (Shir haShirim) in Ha-Siddur Ha-Shalem (The [Complete] Daily Prayer Book), Hebrew Publishing Company, 1949. . . . Opening prayer for the 12th U.A.W.–C.I.O. Labor Convention in Milwaukee, by Rabbi Joseph Baron (1949)This prayer, initially delivered by Rabbi Joseph Baron as an invocation at the opening of the 12th U.A.W.-C.I.O. Labor Convention in Milwaukee, July 1949, was included in the anthology, The Prayer Book of the Armed Forces (ed. Daniel A. Poling, 1951), pp. 81-82. The prayer was selected for the anthology by Walter P. Reuther (1907-1970), a Lutheran, a leader of organized labor, and a civil rights activist who built the United Automobile Workers (UAW) into one of the most progressive labor unions in American history. . . . 📖 תפלה לדוד (נוסח איטלקי מנהג הרומית) | Tefilah l’David: Preghiere di Rito Italiano, a bilingual Hebrew-Italian prayerbook compiled by the chief Rabbi of Rome, David Prato (1949)A bilingual Hebrew-Italian prayerbook compiled by the chief Rabbi of Rome according to the Nusaḥ Italḳi. . . . Categories: Comprehensive (Kol Bo) Siddurim The Many and the Few | רַבִּים בְּיַד מְעַטִּים (Rabim b’Yad M’atim) — a Hebrew adaptation of Woody Guthrie’s Ḥanukkah ballad by Isaac Gantwerk MayerDid you know that the great songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie wrote Ḥanukkah music? It’s true. Though Guthrie himself was not Jewish, Marjorie Greenblatt, his second wife and their children were, and he would write Ḥanukkah songs for the kids in his neighborhood in the 1940s. Two of these songs were recorded by Moses Asch, head of Folkways Records, in 1949 — a kid’s song called “Hanuka Dance,” and a twenty-verse ballad retelling the story of Ḥanukkah called “The Many and the Few.” Below is an original Hebrew translation of “The Many and the Few,” preserving the meter of the original. With a simple melody and a lot of historical research, it could certainly be sung at a Ḥanukkah event. . . . Categories: Ḥanukkah This prayer by Rabbi Samuel Thurman, of the United Hebrew Temple (St. Louis, Missouri), was recorded in the United States’ Congressional Record for January 20, 1949. . . . | ||
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