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Tags:Date of Prayer: 8 May 1990
Sponsor: Rep. Sedgwick “Bill” Green (R-NY)
Mr. GREEN. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome my friend, Rabbi Arthur Schneier, of the Park East Synagogue in New York City, who gave today’s opening prayer.
Rabbi Schneier’s visit today is part of the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of this synagogue, which was founded in 1889.
As Rabbi Schneier noted, today is also the 43rd anniversary of his arrival in the United States as a refugee from Europe.
The Park East Synagogue is renowned for its contributions to Jewish life in New York City as well as throughout the United States and abroad. The synagogue, its rabbi, and its congregation have contributed to interreligious harmony and have been in the forefront of concern for Soviet and Eastern European Jewry and the State of Israel.
The Park East Synagogue has benefited from the spiritual leadership of Rabbi Schneier for the past 28 years. Rabbi Schneier also leads the highly respected human rights organization, the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. This group of leaders from the Roman Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Jewish faiths has visited many countries including the Soviet Union, Hungary, and China in an effort to. protest repression of religious activity.
On behalf of all of my colleagues, I extend a warm welcome to Rabbi Schneier and those members of the Park East Synagogue who made the trip to Washington to witness this extraordinary occasion. I should also like to thank Rabbi Schneier for giving the prayer today and for his dedication to the worldwide Jewish community and to interreligious accord.
| Contribute a translation | Source (English) |
|---|---|
You have delivered my soul from death. (Psalm 116:8 part) | |
You have saved me from the Holocaust and, 43 years ago today, on May 8, 1947, you brought me to the land of freedom and opportunity, the Nation of immigrants. This year you have given me the privilege to preside over the centennial of my congregation, Park East Synagogue, a major spiritual center in New York. | |
God bless America that gave so many of us a new lease on life and remains the beacon of hope and faith for those deprived of human dignity and freedom, the home of churches and synagogues, where each one of us can worship freely and gain strength through moral values. | |
The ideology that sought to bury us is now on its death bed. And You, oh Lord, are very much alive in the hearts of millions, who are hungry not only for food but yearn for spiritual sustenance. “In God we trust” is now proclaimed by nations of the velvet revolutions. The spirit of America has captured the hearts and minds of people throughout the world and, as they grope to find their way from totalitarianism to democracy— sometimes impassioned by nationalism and ethnic strife— may we share with them the benefits of pluralism and tolerance and the blessing of unity in diversity. | |
God bless America * * * Stand beside her and guide her. |
Source(s)
101st Congress, 2nd Session. C-SPAN.
Congressional Record, Vol. 136, Part 7 — Bound Edition, p. 9639.
Congressional Record v. 136, part 7 – 8 May 1990. p. 9639
“Prayer of the Guest Chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives: Rabbi Arthur Schneier on 8 May 1990” is shared through the Open Siddur Project with a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International copyleft license.
Aharon N. Varady (editing/transcription)
Arthur Schneier
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