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Jewish Prayers: Al HaNissim for Yom HaAtzmaut

The Conservative movement added this Al HaNissim prayer (authored by the Conservative liturgist Rabbi Jules Harlow) for Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, in their Siddur Sim Shalom prayerbooks. Others have also authored Al HaNissim texts for Israeli Independence Day, including one written by the Kibbutz HaDati movement, the umbrella organization for religious kibbutzim in Israel. They are written to be said in the Amidah prayer during Yom Ha'atzmaut and modeled after the Al HaNissim texts for Chanukkah and Purim.

We thank You for the heroism, for the triumphs, and for the miraculous deliverance of our ancestors, in other days and in our time.

In the days when Your children were returning to their borders, at the time of a people revived in its land as in days of old, the gates to the land of our ancestors were closed before those who were fleeing the sword. When enemies from within the land together with seven neigh- boring nations sought to annihilate Your people, You, in Your great mercy, stood by them in time of trouble. You defended them and vindicated them. You gave them the courage to meet their foes, to open the gates to those seeking refuge, and to free the land of its armed invaders. You delivered the many into the hands of the few, the guilty into the hands of the innocent. You have wrought great victories and miraculous deliverance for Your people Israel to this day, revealing Your glory and Your holiness to all the world.


Sources: Rabbinical Assembly, reprinted with permission. Siddur Sim Shalom for Shabbat and Festivals © 1998 by the Rabbinical Assembly, p. 149.