Prayer for Democracy, by Renée Citroen (2022)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=62942

open_content_license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International copyleft license date_src_start: 2022-11-09 date_src_end: 2022-11-09 languages_meta: [{"name":"English","code":"eng","standard":"ISO 639-3"}] scripts_meta: [{"name":"Latin","code":"Latn","standard":"ISO 15924"}]

Date: 2025-07-18

Last Updated: 2025-07-18

Categories: 🇪🇺 European Union, 🌐 Day of Democracy (September 15th)

Tags: 21st century C.E., 58th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, European Jewry

Excerpt: This is a prayer for democracy is an appeal to each other and to everyone who realizes what real freedom is and how fragile it is if we are not alert. Whether you call that praying or something else, that does not matter. . . .

Content:
This prayer for democracy is an appeal to each other and to everyone who realizes what real freedom is and how fragile it is if we are not alert. Whether you call that praying or something else, that does not matter.
Contribute a translation Source (English)
YHVH, Protector of those who love democracy,
give us the strength
to protect our countries
against any negative forces:
who spread racism, populism, radicalism and antisemitism,
who rebel against others and make them scapegoats,
who abuse freedom of speech to hurt and lie
and to spread conspiracy theories,
who act out of anger and resentment,
who can only think ‘either/or’ and not ‘and/and’,
who always blame the other and never see their own part.
YHVH, Protector of those who love democracy,
give us the strength to ever resist such forces,
as we know what it may lead to,
and what we hope never to experience (again).
YHVH, Protector of those who love democracy,
give us the strength to ensure a nation in which:
each person is free and equal to another,
all kinds of gender have equal rights,
no difference is made between people of different sexual orientation,
everyone has access to good education,
everyone can go to synagogues, churches, mosques and temples without fear,
where children grow up safely,
where the sick and elderly are nursed and cared for,
where minorities are protected,
where everyone’s opinion is valuable to be heard,
and in which nature and culture are protected and cared for.
YHVH, Protector of those who love democracy,
give us the strength to protect our nation,
as we are grateful to live in a democratic country.
Amen

This “Prayer for Democracy” by Renée Citroen was written for Yom haShoah 2022 and first published on the website of the Ḥavurah Ruach Shalom on 9 November 2022

 

Contributor: Renée Citroen

Co-authors:

Featured Image:
Pulse_of_Europe_in_Frankfurt_am_Main_2017-04-09-1934
Title: Pulse_of_Europe_in_Frankfurt_am_Main_2017-04-09-1934
Caption: Demonstrators with European flags at the "Pulse of Europe" rally in Frankfurt am Main, 2017-04-09 (credit: Raimond Spekking, license: CC BY-SA)