UK chief rabbi: Support women who say mourner’s prayer

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said women who would like to say the Mourner’s Kaddish, the mourner’s prayer, “should feel comfortable and supported in doing so.”

His comments came in the wake of the publication Wednesday by the United Synagogue, a union of British Orthodox Jewish synagogues, of a mourning and Kaddish booklet for women.

“It is my hope that this guide will demystify the process of saying Kaddish, sorting the myths from the facts, and will make a real difference to the grieving process for women in our community,” Mirvis said in a statement on the United Synagogue website.

The booklet is being sent to all United Synagogue communities, as well as rabbis, women religious teachers, burial societies and cemeteries. The booklet also offers other ways to commemorate the death of loved ones, including learning Torah in the name of their loved one, helping others, praying and saying Psalms.

The Mourner’s Kaddish is recited during each of the three daily prayer services in the presence of a minyan, a quorum of 10 male worshipers in traditional Jewish observance. Under Jewish law, women are exempt from commandments that are time-bound, including participation in time-defined prayer.

The issue of women reciting Kaddish in many Orthodox synagogues and at public funerals has been controversial, with some saying that women should not recite the mourner’s prayer publicly or should only recite it if a man is saying it at the same time.

Jacqui Zinkin, a United Synagogue trustee and co-chair of United Synagogue Women, led the effort to prepare the booklet in the wake of her father’s death.

“I found that saying Kaddish provided a structure to my mourning, and together with additional learning and chesed [righteousness] projects, I began to feel my way through the initial loss,” Zinkin said in a letter to rabbis and female leaders accompanying the booklet.

“The grieving process is of course different for everyone, and there may well be women who do not wish to say Kaddish and they should feel no obligation to do so. But for those who feel like me, it can help with mourning the loss of a loved one.”