Inauguration Day Prayer for President Ronald Reagan, by Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk (1985)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=11293

Date: 2015-01-22

Last Updated: 2025-02-18

Categories: 🇺🇸 Inauguration Day (January 20th), Coronations & Inaugurations

Tags: 20th century C.E., 58th century A.M., democratic process, English vernacular prayer, United States

Excerpt: This prayer by Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk at the second inauguration of President Ronald Reagan was recorded in the United States’ Congressional Record on January 21, 1985. . . .

Content:

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	We the people turn to You, O God, in prayer. We have come again to this place which stirs our hearts to reaffirm the highest ideals of our Nation. The sacred oaths about to be pronounced in Your name reflect the awesome responsibilities entrusted to our President and Vice President by the American people.
	May You, who are the rock of ages, guide them in protecting the Constitution of our beloved Commonwealth, founded in faith, which ensures unity without uniformity. Sustain them, O God, as they advance the American way which “gives to bigotry no sanction”[1] From George Washington’s “Letter to the Jews of Newport,” August 17th, 1790.    to “malevolence no hope.”[2] Ibid, but with creative liberty.
	O source of all life, enshrine in their hearts the knowledge that all are created in Your image and that life — Your gift to us — is sacred.
	Inspire our leaders to defeat hunger and hurt, to promote compassion and to find successful ways to assure the weak their share of America’s promise.
	In humility, we pray that this opportunity for renewal will advance reconciliation in the family of nations, guaranteeing peace in our world and tranquility in the farthest reaches of our universe.
	May those who follow us, our children and our children’s children, bless our President and Vice President, their families, and all those associated with them in Government, and may all remember this time and this administration as that in which their future was made secure.
	O God, may You, who makes peace in high places, help us here on Earth to find the way to peace.
	Blessed are You, O God. Aleichem Shalom, grantor of peace. Amen.

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This prayer by Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk at the second inauguration of President Ronald Reagan was recorded in the United States’ Congressional Record on January 21, 1985.

Source(s)

Inauguration Day Prayer for President Ronald Reagan by Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk (1985) part 1

Inauguration Day Prayer for President Ronald Reagan by Rabbi Alfred Gottschalk (1985) part 2

Notes

Notes

1	From George Washington’s “Letter to the Jews of Newport,” August 17th, 1790.
2	Ibid, but with creative liberty.

Contributor: Alfred Gottschalk

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Alfred Gottschalk
  Bio: Alfred Gottschalk (March 7, 1930 – September 12, 2009) was a German-born American Rabbi who was a leader in the Reform Judaism movement, serving as head of the movement's Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC) for 30 years, as president from 1971 to 1996, and then as chancellor until 2000. In that role, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the ordination of the first women to be ordained as rabbis in the United States and Israel, and admitted gay and lesbian students to the school's seminary. During his tenure as president, he oversaw the development of new HUC campuses in Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York City, three of the school's four campuses. In perpetuating and expanding the modernizing tradition of the Reform movement, Gottschalk performed the June 1972 ordination of Rabbi Sally Priesand, the first woman to be ordained in the United States. In 1975, Rabbi Gottschalk oversaw the designation of American Reform Judaism's first female hazzan (cantor), Barbara Herman. In July 1992, he oversaw the "historic and symbolic" ordination of Israel's first woman rabbi, Naamah Kelman.
  Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Gottschalk_%28rabbi%29
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/alfred-gottschalk
• 
  Name: the Congressional Record of the United States of America
  Bio: The Congressional Record is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Printing Office and issued when Congress is in session. Indexes are issued approximately every two weeks. At the end of a session of Congress, the daily editions are compiled in bound volumes constituting the permanent edition. Statutory authorization for the Congressional Record is found in Chapter 9 of Title 44 of the United States Code. (wikipedia)
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Record
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/united-states-congressional-record

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Title: President_Reagan_being_sworn_in_for_second_term_in_the_rotunda_at_the_U.S._Capitol_1985
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