Mortman, who clearly loves his subject, has examined the matter with precision and depth in a manner unprecedented to date.
There has been a history of prayers in Congress since even before independence. The Continental Congress opened with a prayer in 1774, and since the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, more than 440 rabbis have offered prayers during the opening sessions of Congress, and over 600 Jewish prayers have been delivered.
Swedish-born Rabbi Morris Raphall was the first to deliver a prayer in Congress, on February 1, 1860. He implored Divine blessing to direct the House in the election of a speaker who might preside without favor and fear, and that the members might speak and act for the glory and happiness of their common country.
Chaplain rabbis have come from many different countries and have included Jewish military chaplains with a variety of political connections and backgrounds.
In I973, 113 years after Rabbi Raphall, Sally Priesand of the Reform Steven Wise Free Synagogue, was the first woman to pray in the House of Representatives, thereby breaking through the glass ceiling. Her prayer remains significant to this day: “We consecrate ourselves to the task of building a better world. Those who sit here have been granted positions of authority by their fellow citizens. May they use their power wisely and for the good of all, and may their decisions ever reflect a true sensitivity towards human needs. May they uphold the law of righteousness in America.”
The first time that rabbis, enabled by the signature of Abraham Lincoln, served as chaplains in the US army was in 1862. Many Jewish military chaplains who fought for their country have worn combat uniforms when opening Congress.
Theodore Roosevelt, who was New York governor prior to his becoming president, referred to the Bible and spoke of the splendid fighting qualities of the Maccabees.
In 1928, William Franklin Rosenblum, both a congressional guest chaplain and a military chaplain, opened the House in prayer. Since that time there have been over 400 guest chaplains who were also military chaplains, and who had served in the Vietnam War the Korean War and World War II.
A number of rabbis who prayed in Congress had political connections. These included Rabbi Baruch Korff, who was nominated both as President Richard Nixon’s rabbi and a Jewish activist, and the Polish-born Rabbi Chaim Rozwaski, who was invited by President Jimmy Carter to the White House for the signing of the Camp David peace accord.
The rabbi most mentioned in Congress is the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson. He never delivered a prayer there, but many other Lubavitcher rabbis have. In 1994, some months after his passing, the Rebbe was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, in recognition of his “outstanding and lasting contribution toward improvements in world education, morality and acts of charity. Importantly, he initiated a campaign to make known amongst non-Jews the seven Noahide laws, i.e., the seven biblical commandments issued to the whole of mankind.”
German-born Rabbi Leo Baeck, a Holocaust survivor, was the first Jewish chaplain to mention Israel in prayer in the Capitol. Having survived years in the Terezín Ghetto, he influenced his fellow inmates to refrain from retribution against the Germans at the time of liberation, saying, “Do not vent your hate, for hatred will not destroy our enemies – it will destroy us first.”
Both Moses and Maimonides have their place in the House chamber. The portrait of Moses looks straight down on the House speaker.
On March 3, 2015, Benjamin Netanyahu delivered an address to a joint session of Congress in which he acknowledged the presence of the ancient prophet and law-giver saying, “Facing me, right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us in this august chamber, is the image of Moses.”
In 2017, Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, offered a prayer at the inauguration of President Donald Trump, quoting from a Psalm remembering Zion and Jerusalem.
In 2021, Rabbi Michael Beals, from Delaware, blessed President Joe Biden on the eve of his inauguration, citing the week’s Torah portion describing the Israelites’ flight from Egypt.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov said, “As we debate the significant issues of the day, let us remember the words of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, who taught that the only way to soothe the differences between two sides, is to seek how we are all ultimately on the same side.”
Morton’s book provides a fascinating account of rabbis blessing Congress, and is well worth reading by those interested in the Jewish contribution to American history.
WHEN RABBIS BLESS CONGRESS
By Howard Mortman
Cherry Orchard Books
344 pages; $28