Chief Rabbi's prayer for victims of Munich Olympic massacre

The chief rabbi has issued a prayer to be read on the first Shabbat of the Olympic Games in memory of the victims of the 1972 Munich massacre.

Despite a petition signed by more than 99,000 people around the world, the International Olympic Committee has refused to hold a minute's silence to honour the 11 dead Israeli athletes.

But synagogues around Britain will be holding their own services next Shabbat – the day before the ninth of Av, one of the most sombre days in the Jewish calendar - to mark the 40th anniversary.

As part of the commemorations, Lord Sacks has supplied synagogues and communal groups with a prayer that recalls those who were "brutally murdered in an act of terrorism, because they were Israelis, because they were Jews".