Do the Catholics really have a prayer for the conversion of the Jews? Is it a Catholic manifest, or something? Why is it targeted at the Jews? Why not all non-Catholics? (I mean, why not start with the Protestants and work your way up. At least the Protestants are half-way there! 
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Admins: Not meant to start a debate…just seeking out the facts.
Until the Second Vatican Council, a prayer for the conversion of the Jews was included in (I think) the Good Friday liturgy, in a prayer entitled Oremus pro perfidis Judaeis (let us pray for the perfidious Jews). It was part of the Tridentine Mass in Latin, which was practically abolished by said Council.
Last year, Pope Benedict XVI. permitted to celebrate the Tridentine Mass (you needed a special permit from the bishop until last year to celebrate Mass that way). The Pro perfidis Judaeis prayer was not re-intoduced, however.
As a cite, I can’t offer you anything but a German-speaking Wiki site. At least it confirms that it was part of Good Friday.
That also explains why the prayer is specifically targeted against Jews. For many centuries it was widespread among Catholics to blame the Jews as such for the death of Jesus, since the crowd of Jerusalem demanded Jesus’ crucifixion when Pilate offered to release one of the convicts. Since Good Friday is the day Christians commemorate the crucifixion, it was deemed rather obvious to pray for the souls of the Jews on that day.
That’s such a beautifully-engineered backhanded show of concern… “Let us pray for the perfidious Jews”.
“We hope your souls get saved, you despicable heathens!”
Well, to be fair, as this 1960 Time Magazine article explains, the term “Oremus pro perfidis Judaeis” is better translated “Let us pray for the unbelieving Jews”, and that in 1960, Pope John got rid of “perfidis” altogether, so the prayer just said, “Let us pray for the Jews”.
And, as for praying for other people, Time does point out that the baptismal liturgy, since 1614,
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939775,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
The prayer in question was part of a sequence of prayers recited on Good Friday, which included non-Catholic Christians, Jews and other non-Christians. It is, by and large, only the prayer for the Jews which has been controversial, which is why it is often mentioned in isolation.
Until recent times, the prayer was recited in Latin. Most English-language missals included a translation (so that worshippers could follow along) and, in this prayer, perfidis was usually translated as “perfidious”. I am not sure whether the translation has some “official” standing, or whether it was prepared by the publisher of the misssal. Some time in the 1950s the Vatican directed that it should be translated as “unbelieving” which is, I gather, more accurate.
*Perfidis]/i] was dropped altogether in 1960.
When a new order of mass was adopted in 1970, to be celebrated in the vernacular, this prayer was comprehensively rewritten so that it no longer called explicitly for the conversion of the Jews, but rather called for them to grow in faithfulness, an objective in which Jews themselves join.
There matters rested until the recent liberalisation of the old rite of mass. Even without the perfidis language the 1960 version of the prayer was problematic, so it has now been updated - not with the adoption of the 1970 prayer, but with a new rewrite, which is still controversial, since it calls for them to acknowledge Jesus Christ as universal saviour.
Good Friday liturgies celebrated in the vernacular - the great majority - will continue to use the 1970 prayer.
Interesting. Sounds like the current Pope has plans of bringing this prayer back into the limelight. http://wjz.com/national/John.Paul.II.2.661124.html
During the Easter Vigil (or is it Good Friday?), we pray for “those who do not believe in Christ” but we do not mention Jews specifically.
Nitpick: perfidious in English is generally taken to mean deceitful or disloyal; it’s not an exact counterpart to the Latin perfidus (-a, -um), which means treasonous.