Chief Rabbi Delivers Senate Prayer

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks delivered the Invocation prayer in the US Senate on Wednesday, becoming the first Jewish community leader from the UK to fulfill the honor, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Traditionally recited at the opening of each session of the Senate, it was the first time a British chief rabbi has been invited to deliver the prayer as guest chaplain.

Sacks was a guest of Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Connecticut). The prayer is usually performed by the chaplain of the United States Senate, though occasionally guest chaplains, recommended by senators, are invited to deliver the session’s opening prayer in his place.

In the prayer, which was composed especially for the occasion, the chief rabbi said the world must “honor the dignity of difference.”

“Teach us to honor the dignity of difference, recognizing that one who is not in our image is none the less in your image; never forgetting that the people not like us, are still people – like us,” states the prayer.

Sacks, a noted author, orator and communal leader, will be addressing an audience of close to five thousand Chabad Shluchim and lay leaders at the gala Banquet of this year’s annual conference of Shluchim in New York.