Jewish prayer sounds different tonight during Remembrance Day than we are used to. After more than 20 years, it is not Joop Waterman who pronounces the kaddish, but Jik Nihom, his successor.
“I made the decision some time ago, when my wife died last year, that I will stop with guest lectures at schools and say the kaddish in Westerbork,” says Waterman, who is approaching 80 years of age. “I’m at peace with that now.”
The kaddish is a recurring element in the commemoration of victims of the Second World War. Not only is it the last prayer before the two minutes of silence, it is also the prayer in memory of a dead person within the Jewish faith.
“You have two kinds of prayers,” Aquarius begins. “The kaddish is a hymn of praise to God. I always say: it is the prayer of the dead, but it is officially not so. Before the kaddish one should say the Jiskor, the prayer of the camps and the prayer of the dead in a.”
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