An American Kaddish

 
Yitgadal ve’yitkadash sh’mei raba.
Columbine (1999; 13, 24)*
B’alma di v’ra khir’utei,
Santana (2001; 2, 13)
v’yamlikh malkhutei,
Red Lake (2005; 9, 5)
b’ḥayeikhon u-v’yomeikhon,
West Nickel Mines (2006; 5, 5)
u-v’ḥayei d’khol beit yisrael,
Virginia Tech (2007; 33, 17)
ba-agala u-vi-z’man kariv,
Fort Hood (2009; 14, 33)
v’imru amen.
Y’hei sh’mei raba m’vorakh l’alam u’l’almei almaya.
Yitbarakh v’yishtabaḥ v’yitpa’ar v’yitromam v’yitnasei,
Sandy Hook (2012; 28, 2)
v’yit-hadar v’yit’aleh v’yit-halal,
Aurora (2012; 12, 70)
sh’mei d’kudsha, brikh hu.
Washington Navy Yard (2013; 13, 8)
L’ela min kol birkhata v’shirata,
San Bernardino (2015; 16, 24)
tushb’ḥata v’neḥemata
Charleston (2015; 9, 1)
da-amiran b’alma,
Umpqua (2015; 10, 8)
v’imru amen.
Y’hei sh’lama raba min sh’maya,
Orlando (2017; 50, 58)
v’ḥayim aleinu v’al kol yisrael,
Las Vegas (2017; 59, 851)
v’al kol yoshvei teiveil,
Sutherland Springs (2017; 27, 20)
v’imru amen.
Oseh shalom bi-m’romav,
Stoneman Douglas (2018; 17, 17)
hu ya’aseh shalom
Santa Fe (2018; 10, 13*)
aleinu v’al kol yisrael v’al kol yoshvei teiveil,
Pittsburgh (2018; 11, 6)
v’imru amen.
 
* The numbers in parentheses refer to the date of the mass shooting; the number of people killed, and the number of people injured.
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Based in Berlin, Daniel Stein Kokin teaches Jewish Studies at the University of Greifswald in Germany and is currently back in his hometown Los Angeles as a visiting professor of Israel Studies at UCLA.