Kaddish for Grandpa in Jesus' Name Amen is a picture book by James Howe that tells a story about how a little girl deals with the death of her grandpa. The little girl's grandpa is Christian; however, the little girl is Jewish because her mom is Jewish along with her dad who converted into Judaism. The family decides to have a Christian funeral for the grandpa, but they also had a smaller Jewish ceremony back at their house called the Kaddish. It seems in the book the girl likes remembering her grandpa in both religious ways, but actually prefers to remember him by looking at his glasses case. The glasses case reminds her of positive times she had reading books with him. I think this is an excellent book to show that it is nice to connect to a religion in times of grief, but that religion is not the only way to deal with a death. This story reminds me of how my family dealt with the death of my grandpa last year. My family is Jewish, but we do not keep up with every Jewish tradition or aspect of the religion. When my grandpa died I think we were all a little confused on what Jewish traditions to follow when there is a death. We wanted Judaism to be apart of the funeral process because my grandpa was pretty religious as well as my immediate family, but at times my family does not fully identify with the religion. We ended up having a Jewish funeral, but the days following we remembered my grandpa by spending time with family, and not doing any religious ceremonies. I believe this was the best way for my family to grieve.
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