Prayer on Behalf of the Religious Diversity of Humanity, by the Jewish Religious Union of London (1902)

Source Link: https://opensiddur.org/?p=53133

Date: 2023-10-24

Last Updated: 2025-02-18

Categories: Social Justice, Peace, and Liberty

Tags: 20th century C.E., 57th century A.M., English vernacular prayer, pluralism, tolerance of difference, universalist prayers, אחדות aḥdut (togetherness)

Excerpt: This prayer for a pluralism respecting religious and philosophical differences, first appears in A Selection of Prayers, Psalms, and Other Scriptural Passages, and Hymns for Use at the Services of the Jewish Religious Union (1902), where it is №7 on page 6. (In the revised 1903 edition of the prayerbook, it is №20 on page 20.) . . .

Content:

Contribute a translation	Source (English)
	Thou whose infinite power and wisdom are reflected in the infinite diversities of Thy creation, we see Thy handiwork also in the differences that prevail in the minds of men.
	We pray to Thee for all men, Thy children, our brethren. Take them all under the sheltering wings of Thy love.
	And may we, recognising that differences of thought and belief are of Thine implanting, strive the more zealously to be one in charity and brotherly love, one in the desire to know and do Thy will. Amen.

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This prayer for a pluralism respecting religious and philosophical differences, first appears in A Selection of Prayers, Psalms, and Other Scriptural Passages, and Hymns for Use at the Services of the Jewish Religious Union (1902), where it is №7 on page 6. (In the revised 1903 edition of the prayerbook, it is №20 on page 20.) The authorship of the prayer is nowhere indicated, but it seems likely to me that it was made by either Lily Montagu, the founder of the Jewish Religious Union, or Claude Montefiore (its president). –Aharon Varady

Source(s)

 

Contributor: the Jewish Religious Union of London

Co-authors:

• 
  Name: Claude Montefiore
  Bio: Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore, also Goldsmid–Montefiore or just Goldsmid Montefiore (1858–1938) was the intellectual founder of Anglo-Liberal Judaism and the founding president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, rabbinic literature and New Testament. He assisted Rabbi Simeon Singer in preparing the Authorised Prayer Book in 1890. He was a significant figure in the contexts of modern Jewish religious thought, Jewish-Christian relations, and Anglo-Jewish socio-politics, and educator. Montefiore was President of the Anglo-Jewish Association and an influential anti-Zionist leader, who co-founded the anti-Zionist League of British Jews in 1917.
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Montefiore
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/claude-montefiore
• 
  Name: Morris David Joseph
  Bio: Rabbi Morris David Joseph (28 May 1848, in London – 17 April 1930) studied at Jews' College, London, and in 1868 was appointed rabbi of the North London Synagogue; in 1874 he went to the Old Hebrew Congregation of Liverpool, where he officiated as preacher until 1882. He became delegate senior minister of the West London Synagogue in 1893, when David Woolf Marks retired from active service. Joseph published a collection of sermons, The Ideal in Judaism, London, 1893, and a valuable popular work on Jewish theology, Judaism as Creed and Life, in 1903.
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morris_Joseph
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/morris-joseph
• 
  Name: Lilian Helen Montagu
  Bio: The Hon. Lilian Helen "Lily" Montagu, CBE (22 December 1873 – 22 January 1963) was the first woman to play a major role in Progressive Judaism. Until the age of 15, she was educated at Doreck College, and privately educated thereafter. In 1893 she founded with Emily Marion Harris the West Central Jewish Girls Club (which subsequently merged into the Jewish Girls' Brigade). She was active in social improvement, particularly in respect to unemployment, sweat shops and bad housing. In 1901 and 1902, Montagu laid the groundwork for the establishment of the Jewish Religious Union in London. In February 1902 she arranged the first meeting of the Jewish Religious Union for the Advancement of Liberal Judaism at her sister Henrietta Franklin's house. The Union set up the first synagogue in Liberal Judaism in the UK and helped found the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Montagu was a founding member with her sister of the Jewish League for Woman Suffrage. She sat on the executive committee and led the meetings in prayer. Following the retirement of Leo Baeck, Montagu served for a brief stint (1955–1959) in her 80s as president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, before handing the reins over to Solomon Freehof.
  Website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Montagu
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/lilian-helen-montagu
• 
  Name: the Jewish Religious Union of London
  Bio: The Jewish Religious Union of London was founded in 1902 by it principal organizer, Lily Montagu, with Claude Montefiore as its most visible leader serving as its president. The members of the initial leadership committee, besides Montagu and Montefiore, were: Oswald Simon, Henrietta Franklin (Lily Montagu's eldest sister), Rabbi Simeon Singer and Rabbi A. A. Green (both Orthodox rabbis), Morris Joseph, Albert Jessel (an honorary officer of the United Synagogue), N.S. Joseph, and Isidore Spielman (President of the Jewish Historical Society, an ex-warden of the New West End Synagogue. (Jessel and, Spielman were also cousins of Lily Montagu.) Simeon Singer and Albert Jesel served as vice-presidents. The group's activities ultimately gave rise a decade later to the Liberal Jewish Synagogue of London.
  Website:
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/jewish-religious-union-of-london
• 
  Name: Aharon N. Varady (transcription)
  Bio: Aharon Varady (M.A.J.Ed./JTSA Davidson) is a volunteer transcriber for the Open Siddur Project. If you find any mistakes in his transcriptions, please let him know. Shgiyot mi yavin; Ministarot naqeni שְׁגִיאוֹת מִי־יָבִין; מִנִּסְתָּרוֹת נַקֵּנִי "Who can know all one's flaws? From hidden errors, correct me" (Psalms 19:13). If you'd like to directly support his work, please consider donating via his Patreon account. (Varady also translates prayers and contributes his own original work besides serving as the primary shammes of the Open Siddur Project and its website, opensiddur.org.)
  Website: https://aharon.varady.net
  Profile Link: https://opensiddur.org/profile/aharon-varady-transcription

Featured Image:

Title: No. 7 [Prayer on Behalf of All Peoples] (Jewish Religious Union 1902)
Caption: No. 7 [Prayer on Behalf of All Peoples] (Jewish Religious Union 1902)