Kaddish in Judaist ritual means a prayer for the dead. The works in this series are linear pen-and-ink drawings of angular, sparse figures, partly clad or nude, mostly dead or dying, or waiting their turn to be exterminated. There is no goriness in these scenes, there is just bone- chilling, unspeakable horror. Obviously, this sycle of works was engenedered by the memory of the holocaust.

A most difficult and demanding subject with grave dangers to the aesthetic sensibility. How Menses does it without ever infringing on the province of tact and taste would deserve a study of its own. Actually, the artist no longer deals with individual suffering or individual death. Each one of his works becomes a universal accusation and a common mourning for the six million victims.

The Kaddish series deals with the various aspects of the holocaust. In Judiasim, those who perished in the holocaust are reffered to as Kedoshim. Kedoshim means ‘holy ones’ from the word ‘Kadosh’, meaning holy in Hebrew.

The series was done in black oils and acrylics. It was executed between
1963 - 1980. The series is comprised of about 110 paintings, all on masonite; about 50 smaller studies, two triptychs, as well as hundreds of ink drawings on paper.