Sen. Warnock remarks on Senate guest chaplain Rabbi Peter Berg The Temple Atlanta Georgia 12/12/2023

"When Rabbis Bless Congress: The Great American Story of Jewish Prayers on Capitol Hill" ... buy the new book here:

See Rabbi Berg's prayer here:

See Sen. Ossoff remarks here

Mr. WARNOCK. Mr. President, it is

my honor and joy to join you in welcoming our good friend Rabbi Peter

Berg to the U.S. Senate today.

Rabbi Berg, thank you so very much

for your inspiring prayer. It lifts, before all of us, our highest ideals and reminds us of the important work that

we are called to do together.

It is always great to see you. As I

often say, every Baptist preacher needs

a rabbi. And Peter Berg is not only the

rabbi at The Temple; he is my rabbi.

And he is my friend.

For more than 15 years, Rabbi Berg

has led The Temple, Atlanta’s largest

and one of its most historic synagogues. Its history is so very important

not just for Atlanta’s Jewish community but for my own church, the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King

served and, indeed, for the entire city

of Atlanta. You are such an important

leader in our country.

For more than 50 years, Atlanta’s

Ebenezer Baptist Church, led by Dr.

King, has had a special relationship

with The Temple. After Dr. King won

the Nobel Peace Prize, some folks in

Atlanta didn’t want to celebrate it.

They weren’t certain that that was

worthy of recognition. But it was

Rabbi Jacob Rothschild, The Temple’s

then-senior rabbi and a champion for

civil rights himself, who helped to

bring the city together to commemorate that important moment in the

movement for Georgians. It was an

interracial dinner, and that, in and of

itself, was a movement forward at a

time of deep divisions and some of the

darkest hours of our country.

And the special relationship has sustained to the present day, where Rabbi

Peter Berg, who is the fifth senior

rabbi in The Temple’s history, and I,

the fifth senior pastor in the history of

Ebenezer Baptist Church, have carried

on that tradition of ecumenical, spiritual friendship. And that friendship is

genuine.

As you know, Rabbi, we have done a

lot of important work together, and I

am so grateful for the long history of

friendship between our two congregations. This past March, I was honored

to have you to serve as the guest

preacher for Ebenezer’s 138th anniversary, and you preached with all the fire

of any Baptist preacher I know

In fact, every year, our congregations