A Daughter’s Kaddish

Sarah Birnbach

Friday, November 3 • 10:30am

@sarahsheilabirnbach

@sarah.birnbach

@sarah_birnbach

A Daughter’s Kaddish

A Daugh­ter’s Kad­dish recounts Sarah Birn­bach’s year-long odyssey to hon­or her beloved father by recit­ing the Mourn­er’s Kad­dish twice dai­ly in syn­a­gogue for eleven months, despite her father’s ini­tial request that she hire a male to do so.

Need­ing to trav­el for work, Sarah had to find morn­ing and evening minyans in each city she vis­it­ed, a chal­lenge that brought pleas­ant sur­pris­es — and upsets. A novice wor­ship­per and sin­gle work­ing moth­er, Sarah’s obsta­cles were many, includ­ing gen­der-based resis­tance to her prayer prac­tice, her daugh­ter’s near-fatal car acci­dent, an inci­dent that tore her syn­a­gogue apart, and her moth­er’s dismissiveness.

Deter­mined to ful­fill her com­mit­ment to her father, Sarah found that the rewards of recit­ing the Mourn­er’s Kad­dish are as much for the mourn­er, as for the soul of the deceased, and that the sup­port of the minya­neers can lead to true healing.This mem­oir demon­strates the pow­er of Judais­m’s tra­di­tion­al mourn­ing rit­u­als to bring us clos­er to our faith and pro­vide mean­ing and com­fort to those who grieve.

About the Author: Sarah’s writ­ing career began after suc­cess­ful careers as a man­age­ment con­sul­tant and fam­i­ly ther­a­pist. As a sought-after moti­va­tion­al speak­er, she has deliv­ered over 500 pre­sen­ta­tions. Her sto­ries have been pub­lished in numer­ous mag­a­zines and jour­nals plus The Wash­ing­ton Jew­ish Week and The Jerusalem Post. She is a third-gen­er­a­tion life­time Hadas­sah mem­ber and is active in the Wom­en’s Nation­al Book Association.

COST:  $8 Members | $10 Guests