The following is an excerpt from When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill by Howard Mortman. To read more, purchase the book.

Introduction

Need more prayer in your life?

Simple solution: Just turn on your television and watch Congress.

The unlikely congregation is the backdrop for a taxpayer-funded ritual dating back to our country’s creation. Every session of both legislative bodies— the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate—opens with a prayer. The Divine gets his due even before the flag gets a pledge.

This tradition might bother some. You may not like the idea of Congress incorporating religion into its official proceedings. You may not want the Congressional Record reading like a prayer book. You may seek policy debate on your TV or internet stream and instead get two minutes of unsolicited religious teachings. Or perhaps you think it’s all fine, nothing wrong, no problem with prayer in a public forum. Of all the things Congress does day in and day out, praying to the Almighty ranks among the least offensive. Either way, the fact is: Prayer happens. It’s part of Congress, its past, present, and likely future. Just like floor debates and votes. And it’s a tradition upheld by the Supreme Court which, despite Moses the prophet’s prominence outside on its building—depicted on top, in front, in center on the East Pediment—inside does not open in prayer.

From the Founding Fathers to contemporary times, Congress prayers have fans in high places. Consider what Richard Nixon wrote during the Eisenhower days when he was vice president and president of the Senate: “In the usual order of business of the United States Senate,” Nixon wrote in a 1957 collection of prayers offered by the U.S. Senate chaplain, “the invocation is often the best speech of the day. As a matter of fact, in the prayers of the Chaplain, rather than in the hectic day-to-day clashes of debate, we can see the greatness of America, because in the invocations the faith is expressed which brings us all together, whereas the debates often tear us apart.”

The greatness of America, Nixon said. Congress’ embrace of religion from the beginning might strike some as ironic, perhaps counterintuitive, given a long history of scandal and sin. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) once jokingly called Washington, DC “a city of Satan.” He said it during a Senate session opened by chaplain Barry Black praying to “Almighty God, the prince of peace.” Indeed, amid its controversies, Congress carves out a prominent place for the Lord.

On January 13, 2012, the New York Times religion columnist profiled the House and Senate chaplains. “At a time when Congress is stunningly unpopular, with approval ratings in various recent polls around 12 percent,” Samuel Freedman wrote, “Father [Patrick] Conroy and Dr. Black serve as pastors to what must be one of the most reviled congregations in the country” (page A19).

If Congress is “one of the most reviled congregations,” what’s worse? For what it’s worth, House chaplain Conroy also served as a chaplain in San Quentin State Prison.

Nearly every prayer invokes God. Many are in Jesus’ name. And some are Jewish.

Hundreds, actually. As of February 2020, 441 rabbis from over 400 synagogues have opened Congress—increasing at an average rate of 7.5 Jewish prayers per year since World War II (9 in 2018 and 11 in 2019). Jews make up 2.2 percent of the American population, according to an October 1, 2013 New York Times report (page A11). It’s a higher percentage for rabbis praying in Congress. Of the 527 guest chaplains appearing in the House of Representatives during the ten-year period from September 2006 through September 2016, 35 were rabbis. Six percent. In 2019, the House of Representatives met in session 170 days. Guest chaplains opened those sessions in prayer 83 times. Eleven were rabbis. Thirteen percent.

The participation of rabbis in the tradition of delivering congressional prayers reached a symbolic milestone in the spring of 2018. That’s when the total number of rabbi prayers reached 613. It’s the same number as commandments—mitzvot—in the Torah, according to the Talmud. It’s a number that’s significant for understanding why Jews are called the chosen people, as Rep. Ed Koch (D-NY) told his House colleagues on September 27, 1971. “It means,” intoned the future New York City mayor, “that we have taken on greater obligations than are required of others in pursuing the adoration of God. To Jews this means that a non-Jew who fulfills the seven laws of Noah will find his place in heaven while Jews are required to carry out the 613 commandments.”

And from those first 613 rabbi prayers and subsequent ones emerges a narrative of both America’s Congress and America’s Jews. American political history meets the legacy of the Jew in America to form one American narrative.

This is the story of rabbis who have led Congress in prayer. Who they are and what they say. Their connection to America’s politics and policy and history.

This is no argument for or against Congress having prayers, nor the larger, timeless and often acrimonious church-state debate. There are ample loud advocates in both camps. Instead, it’s a straight-forward study of a tradition cemented in Congressional history, of which there are abundant stories needing to be told. For Jews, it’s a narrower yet no less profound discussion. Rabbis themselves hardly ever raise church-state considerations in their prayers. One rare exception occurred during the beginning of the twentieth century. With seemingly unintended irony, a rabbi praying in the House of Representatives begged the Lord to give government leaders “the spirit of wisdom” to keep “church and state in their fortunate separation.” If that wisdom were followed, the next several hundred rabbi prayers might not have been heard. Once, after a rabbi was guest chaplain, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), said, “Prayer and reflection upon the great old teachings of the Scriptures can give us the strength, the resourcefulness, the courage and the vision to see our way. I thank the Rabbi.”

Polls show Americans are moving away from believing in God—and just a third of American Jews say they believe in God as described in the Bible. But Congress remains steadfast in its daily embrace of the Lord. Congress showcases prayers from a diversity of voices coming from a range of backgrounds and experiences in a public setting. And that, as the saying goes, is good for the Jews.

To be sure, the directive to pray daily was not issued first by the U.S. Congress. Maimonides got there earlier. The revered twelfth-century Spanish Jewish philosopher cited Torah (Exodus 23:25) in asserting, according to Rabbi Avi Weiss around 800 years later, “It is an affirmative commandment to pray every day as it says, ‘and you shall serve the Lord your God.’” You can see Maimonides now inside the U.S. House of Representatives, where his image is among nearly two dozen marble relief portraits over the chamber’s gallery door.

Christians have been praying in Congress since the Revolutionary War ended. Jews, since right before the Civil War began. And along the way, some great history, lofty inspiration, notable quirks, plus idiosyncrasies and even cringeworthy moments, language, and personalities, which might have seemed correct at the time but hold up poorly against today’s standards. Few of the prayers are dry. There’s character and narrative behind most of the rabbis. Although not a traditional academic study, with well over 613 data points to draw upon (prayer primary sourcing via the Congressional Record, the C-SPAN Video Library, and newspaper reports), this unprecedented examination hopefully will aid—even inspire—scholarly research as much as raise general awareness. Among the highlights:

• Of the first rabbi guest chaplain, in 1860, a member of Congress said: “I was pleased with his appearance. I should like to see our Chaplain officiate in costume.” The New York Times noted the “learned Rabbi, who appears in full canonicals.”

• That first rabbi made history only because the first choice didn’t speak English.

• Nearly a third of the rabbis are, as you might expect, New Yorkers. But they’ve also represented many states without many Jews. Like Alaska.

• The first female rabbi—Sally Priesand—didn’t make an appearance in Congress until over 100 years after the first male rabbi. The Congressional Record got her name wrong. Despite coming from a New York City synagogue and being sponsored by a New York City congresswoman, her glass-shattering early Seventies prayer was ignored by the New York Times, which reported extensively the first male rabbi prayer 113 years earlier.

• However, the 613th Jewish prayer in Congress—as mentioned, a number significant in Jewish tradition because it is the number of commandments in the Torah—was delivered by a woman rabbi.

• Rabbis reflect immigration patterns, the American story. They come from 24 countries other than America. In the early days they were part of the well-documented immigration from European countries. Now immigrant rabbis have Latin American roots. The first Latin America-born rabbi to open Congress in prayer did so a year after becoming a U.S. citizen.

• For any fear of Jews overwhelming Capitol Hill and forcing America to prop up Israel, rabbis rarely mention the Jewish state in their prayers. Six percent of Jewish prayers have made implicit or explicit mention of Israel. And those were mostly ceremonial. Virtually none advocated policy. Two rabbis gave prayers during Israel’s Six-Day War—and never mentioned it. And before Israel was created in 1948, several rabbi guest chaplains were anti-Zionist.

• Six rabbis who survived Auschwitz have opened Congress in prayer—and 13 post-Holocaust guest chaplain rabbis were born in Germany. A Dachau survivor prayed in Congress while President Reagan was visiting Germany’s Bitburg Cemetery, where Waffen SS troops were buried. The first prayer with a Holocaust reference was given by a guest chaplain in the midst of World War II—and he wasn’t Jewish.

• A president once invited a rabbi to open the House in prayer in order to prevent war with Britain. A rabbi prayer less than a week before Pearl Harbor warned of “dark forces of tyranny and oppression” and “encircling gloom.” The day before D-Day, another rabbi asked God to be “with our armed forces on land, on sea, and in the air.” There was a surge of rabbis praying in Congress during the Vietnam War—a golden age for Jewish guest chaplains. The language of their prayers turned against the war just like popular American opinion. • The record for the greatest number of prayers given by a single rabbi is held by a Navy chaplain.

• During the heart of the Cold War, a rabbi guest chaplain was identified as executive director of the American Jewish League Against Communism. Inc., He never mentioned Communism. But really no need to after citing “the whip of the oppressor” in his prayer. A news account called the rabbi’s prayer “unusual.” Perhaps more unusual: The rabbi’s prayer was offered the same year Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) nominated him for “the high priesthood of the Ancient Trojan Order of Laocoon and His Descendants.”

• Isaiah is the big winner in rabbi prayers: Over one out of every ten rabbi prayers cites him. Three rabbis didn’t mention God. The American historical figure mentioned most in a rabbi prayer? George Washington. The most mentioned American Jewish historical figure? The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

It is also a vital time for understanding religion and national politics, where there is renewed interest in reporting how the two come together.

After the 2016 presidential election, New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet told National Public Radio (December 8, 2016): “I think that the New York-based—and Washington-based too, probably—media powerhouses don’t quite get religion. We have a fabulous religion writer, but she’s all alone. We don’t get religion. We don’t get the role of religion in people’s lives. And I think we can do much, much better.” Doing better might take a while. The Wall Street Journal ran this March 28, 2018, correction: “An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Benjamin Netanyahu said Moses brought water from Iraq. He said the water was brought from a rock.”

The Trump era is an appropriate time for a closer examination of prayer and government. Like the Supreme Court, there’s no White House chaplain. But prayers and prayer advocacy are part of White House language.

Spokesperson Sarah Sanders was asked by a reporter on July 12, 2017, why President Trump met with his Faith Advisory Board. “The idea that somebody would only pray when they’re in crisis I think makes you miss the entire point of what prayer is about. You should do that every day,” Sanders said, “I think you can do that in the best of times and the worst of times.”

The December 2017 day that the Republican Congress and President Trump celebrated passage of tax reform, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson offered a Cabinet meeting a prayer “in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo began an August 16, 2018, Cabinet meeting with a prayer.

During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Vice President Mike Pence held regular task force meetings in the Situation Room to coordinate the federal response. Each meeting, according to the April 12, 2020, Washington Post, “often begins with a prayer.” President Trump himself said during a May 22, 2020, press briefing on reopening houses of worship, "In America, we need more prayer, not less."

On the other side of the aisle, when House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi gave marathon-length, filibuster-like remarks on immigration on February 7, 2018, she brought a Bible. “I thought when I came to the floor,” Pelosi said, “I would be like reading the Bible, because the Bible is so fraught with so many passages that take us to a higher place to have a conversation about human beings, all of God’s children, at a higher place.”

To be sure, citing Scripture can be tricky for political leaders. Consider Jimmy Carter. He continued teaching Sunday Bible class after winning the presidency. Shortly after his inauguration he offered Bible study at the First Baptist Church of Washington, less than a mile from the White House. On April 22, 1977, the Associated Press reported that Carter’s lesson “revolved around Christ’s driving the money-lenders out of the temple.” Carter told his church class, according to the AP: “That was a turning point in Christ’s life. He had directly challenged in a fatal way the existing church, and there was no possible way for the Jewish leaders to avoid the challenge. So they decided to kill Jesus.”

Two-and-a half-miles from the White House, and less than a mile from the Capitol, you’ll find the Museum of the Bible. It opened during Trump’s first year in office. Inside is a flight simulator called “Washington Revelations.” The Washington Post on December 20, 2017, called the simulator the museum’s “potential Space Mountain hit . . . a thrill ride that revisits much of the scripture and biblical references” on Capitol Hill and Washington’s top sites. References include Moses on top of the Supreme Court.

Moses is outside on the Supreme Court building, but he’s inside the House chamber. Like Maimonides, Moses’ marble likeness is above a gallery door. But Moses’ portrait is the most prominent, looking straight down on the House speaker. Benjamin Netanyahu recognized the prophet and lawgiver during his March 3, 2015, address to a joint session of Congress. “Facing me, right up there in the gallery, overlooking all of us, in this august chamber, is the image of Moses,” the Israeli Prime Minister said. During his December 11, 2018, farewell speech, Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) pointed to “the great lawgiver Moses on the far wall looking down directly on the Speaker.” (The Museum of the Bible also notes about Moses: “In 1776, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson proposed a seal of the United States depicting the Israelites escaping Egypt, from the book of Exodus. From John Adam’s description, ‘Dr. Franklin proposes . . . Moses lifting up his Wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, in his Chariot overwhelmed with the Waters.’”)

No such vibe in Israel’s legislative body. After Pence addressed the Knesset, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik wrote in the Wall Street Journal on January 23, 2018, that the Vice President “threaded his remarks with references to Scripture, a rhetorical technique Knesset audiences have rarely heard from a political leader since Menachem Begin resigned as prime minister in 1983.”

So, want to hear rabbis cite Moses and Scripture and Torah and Talmud and Mishnah to legislators and the public? Don’t turn to Jerusalem—the Knesset does not open with prayer (although, arguably, who in the Knesset isn’t a rabbi?). Instead tune into Washington, where Israel’s chief rabbis can and have served as guest chaplains in Congress, just like hundreds of others.

You’ll find in the center of the nation’s capital, on a hill, at the front of each chamber of Congress, a story of Jewish contribution to American democracy that’s been well over a century and a half in the making but only now being told.

The above is an excerpt from When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill by Howard Mortman. To read more, purchase the book.