Joseph Gonda recently retired after more than 50 years in the department of philosophy at York University. The mourner’s Kaddish is one of the central prayers in Judaism. There are a number of conventions that govern its recital – it is said by immediate family members in the year following a loved one’s death; it should be recited by a minyan, or a group of 10 Jews, traditionally men; it should be said on the 10th anniversary of a loved one’s death. My plan to say the Kaddish at Birkenau alongside my son, my only child, met none of these...