Pittsburgh paper prints Mourner’s Kaddish prayer on front page

Post-Gazette, city’s largest newspaper, hailed for its moving tribute to victims of Tree of Life synagogue massacre

By JTA 2 November 2018, 6:12 pm 1

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The front page of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Friday November 2, 2018 (Screenshot via JTA)

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the largest newspaper serving the Pennsylvania city’s metropolitan area, printed a part of the Jewish mourner’s prayer in Hebrew as its front-page headline.

The first four words of the Mourner’s Kaddish were printed on Friday’s front page as a tribute to the 11 people killed last weekend in a shooting attack at the city’s Tree of Life synagogue, allegedly by a far-right extremist. The words mean “may His great name be exalted and sanctified.”

The same prayer, which is part Hebrew and part Aramaic, is to be recited Friday — the first Shabbat since the massacre.

On Twitter, historian Aaron Astor wrote: “The Jewish Mourner’s Kaddish is one of the most important prayers of all. This was a very moving gesture by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to post it as the headline.”

https://twitter.com/lakaufman/status/1058387351339028480

Jodi Kantor, an investigative journalist for The New York Times, wrote that the unusual headline is “The ultimate tribute to the victims. A statement that Jews belong.”