UTJ Viewpoints

Our learned colleague, Rabbi David Willig, correctly bemoans the fact that Jews enter the synagogue for Yizkor, and then leave, emptying the sanctuary, depressing the communal mood, and diminishing the impact of the sacred Yom Kippur day upon those who observe it. I suggest that we view Yizkor, with all of its challenges, not as a threat but as the generative instrument that it potentially may become. Thank God that Jews walk through our doors for Yizkor, that the ever ha-meduldal, the Jewish identity hanging by the thread, is still connected. In many Conservative and Reform communities, Yizkor no longer carries a draw for the young people. Empty pews make empty coffers, and empty coffers close synagogues.

Yizkor is not a Halakhic requirement. Sefardim do not observe the rite and with good reason. Rabbi David HaLevi, former Sefardi Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, argues that Ashkenazim would do well to abolish the rite, and with good reason. We do not mourn on Jewish religious holidays, en aveilut be-yom tov. Consider the anomaly that we do not say the Maleh memorial prayer during the happy month of Nisan except for the eighth day of Passover, a yom tov.

Practically, I observe Yizkor and say selected piyyutim because they are part of our folk religion and are not technically forbidden. I recommend that Yizkor be recited as a grateful commemoration, without tears, thereby conforming to the law while not doing violence to the ethnic religious social glue that Yizkor happens to provide.

When Jews of Ashkenazi background stop saying Yizkor, as nostalgia wanes and memories of tradition lapse, Jews forfeit their background. So I welcome Yizkor Jews because they are still coming through the synagogue doors, they are still open to being welcomed. We have to consider strategies of accommodation, which are honest to halakhah, Jewish law, and are appropriate to the spiritual space of those for Yizkor is the thread by which their Judaism hangs.

King Solomon suggested that we cast our bread upon the water. If we have not lost the memory, the embers of identity may yet be salvaged.