The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the First Session of the Thirty-Sixth Congress.

<<The First Jewish Prayer Intoned at the Opening of the House of Representatives.>> By the time of the Civil War, Jews were slowly making inroads into the American mainstream. Morris Jacob Raphall (1798-1868), Rabbi of Cong. B’nai Jeshurun of New York, was the first Jew to deliver a prayer in the U.S. Congress. Raphall closes his remarks here with the Hebrew words of the ancient priestly benediction, here as recorded by the Congressional Globe: “Yebarekeka A-donai Veyishmireka…” (p. 649). As the historian Bertram Korn noted, this event was noteworthy in that it was “the initial recognition by the House of Representatives of the equal status of Judaism, with Christianity as an American faith.” This despite the dismay of certain Protestant clergymen when Rabbi Raphall appeared on the House floor bedecked in a prayer shawl and skullcap, pronouncing blessings in Hebrew. (“The next thing we shall have will be a Shaking Quaker dancing a reel,” one wailed).