Prayers for a speedy victory over all enemies of the United States will be delivered on New Year’s Day in all synagogues throughout the country in accordance with President Roosevelt’s proclamation setting the first day of the year 1942 as “a day of prayer, asking forgiveness for our shortcomings of the past, of consecration to the tasks of the present, of asking God’s help in days to come.”
The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, as well as other rabbinical groups in America, issued a call to all Jews to attend the special victory prayers in the synagogues. The Mizrachi Organization of America, religious wing of the Zionist movement, at a special emergency conference at the Astor Hotel today adopted a series of resolutions urging and encouraging all its members and youth “to support without stint American military efforts, civilian defense, the purchase of Defense Bonds, the campaign of the Red Cross and all other civil and military agencies.” A prayer was delivered at the conclave “that the Heavenly Father bring about speedily the triumph of justice and humanity, and that He strengthen the hands of the President of the United States, whose godly vision and guidance is the hope of all humanity.”
A special resolution adopted at the conference calls upon the members of the clergy affiliated with Mizrachi “to volunteer in significant numbers as chaplains in the U.S. Army and Navy.” The conference also expressed its “heartfelt jubilation” over the visit of Winston Churchill to this country.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.