A Daughter's Kaddish

A woman breaks with Jewish tradition to honor her late father in this moving and heartfelt memoir from local author Sarah Birnbach.

To honor her beloved father, Sarah commits to reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish twice a day in synagogue for eleven months—a Jewish mourning ritual that was historically reserved for sons—despite her father’s initial request that she hire someone male to do so. In this memoir, she documents her struggle to overcome obstacles to observance—including gender-based objections to her prayer practice-- and explores how a year performing a ritual associated with grief and death changed and enriched her life.