#yizkor

[divinum-pacis]

People gather for Yizkor, a Jewish prayer service for the dead, to demand a permanent cease-fire in Gaza, on Yom Kippur in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

[queenwille]

יִזְכֹּר עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל אֶת בָּנָיו וּבְנוֹתָיו הַנֶּאֱמָנִים וְהָאַמִּיצִים,

חַיָּלֵי צְבָא הַהֲגָנָה לְיִשְׂרָאֵל,

וְכָל לוֹחֲמֵי הַמַּחְתָּרוֹת וַחֲטִיבוֹת הַלּוֹחֲמִים בְּמַעַרְכוֹת הָעָם,

וְאַנְשֵי קְהִלּוֹת הַמּוֹדִיעִין, הַבִּטָּחוֹן, הַמִּשְׁטָרָה וְשֵׁרוּת בָּתֵּי הַסֹּהַר,

אֲשֶׁר חֵרְפוּ נַפְשָׁם בַּמִּלְחָמָה עַל תְּקוּמַת יִשְׂרָאֵל,

וְכָל מִי שֶׁנִּרְצְחוּ בָּאָרֶץ וּמִחוּצָה לָהּ בִּידֵי מְרַצְּחִים מֵאִרְגּוּנֵי הַטֵּרוֹר.

יִזְכֹּר יִשְׂרָאֵל וְיִתְבָּרַךְ בְּזַרְעוֹ וְיֶאֱבַל עַל זִיו הָעֲלוּמִים

וְחֶמְדַּת הַגְּבוּרָה וּקְדֻשַּׁת הָרָצוֹן וּמְסִירוּת הַנֶּפֶשׁ

שֶׁל הַנִּסְפִּים בַּמַּעֲרָכָה הַכְּבֵדָה.

יִהְיוּ חַלְלֵי מַעַרְכוֹת יִשְׂרָאֵל עֲטוּרֵי הַנִּצָּחוֹן

חֲתוּמִים בְּלֵב יִשְֹרָאֵל לְדֹר דֹּר.

[angryjewishcockroach]

My synagogue has a Torah that survived the Holocaust; while the Torah survived, the community it belonged to didn't, so we put them in our Yizkor book and remember them every year on Yom Kippur 💙

[psychologeek]

Bleeding Memories

Today is Yom Ha'Shoah (Holocaust Day).

And I wrote something (tw: holocaust. Mention of dead ppl *including kids* , and their memory.)

You're five years old, and your Ballet-class dance to a voice singing: "wait until you grow up, you were often told/A tall man and a short woman/ If you won't eat, you'll never grow up/Good boy leave an empty dish" (It would take years before you fully understand that). You are seven, and your mom won't let you read That Book. (You take it when she isn't home, read about death and darkness and hope). You read a lot during the next years. (It's written in your DNA). There's a siren and you think about People turn to numbers Numbers turn to bodies Bodies turn to ashes (to ashes). (You never really cry). It doesn't matter that your family already been here when it happened (In the book of people in your family, keeping records of ten generations, there are chapters thin as paper, summarised: "Fruma, 1940-1943, Auschwitz" ; "David, 1915-?, Trablinka" ; "unknown, 3 daughters of-" (Do you know their names? Do you remember?)

My great-grandmother To her dieing day, Never believed her sister is dead "She was an award-winning swimmer!", She claimed. (Or so they said) What difference can that make With two children? It's a familiar story: overcrowded ship meets a direct bomb. Old, laconic papers filled with names, ages, a description, maybe- (Don't forget) "Victiom's first name (also nickname): Adele. ||Approx. age at death: 5|| Relationship to the victim (family/other): Other (you fill the papers for your family and friends. You fill it for the people you know knew. You fill it for the woman who laid next to you in the cold cabin, who cried as she told you about her daughter. You fill one for the daughter, too, even if all you can put is "Girl, daughter of Esther, approx. age at death: 4, Dachao". "I had a cousin, she had 5 children. I can't remember the names" "Name: Her Father's name was David? Or Dov?" "There was a family. I don't remember their names. But they lived in the apartment next to mine when-" (Remember) In 2017 my parents spent a vication in Slovakia. The Airbnb owner was excited to hear they are jews, and had planty of helpful advices: "Oh, you're Jewish? So, you're probably going to visit Auschwitz?" When I was in 11th grade, I didn't go to the Poland Journey. My mother did go. There are prime locations you must see- The children's forest, in Tarnow. (700 Jews returned, after- Or tried. They were harassed away. No one left now. It's 100 less then the amount of kids' skeletons, laying in the woods). 2023, a Tumblr post says "I support Jews, this is a safe place" get the following replies: "Heil Hitler" "Seig Heil" "No thank I no like jews" "The first holocaust happened in Africa. What happened to Jews was just why white on white violence. Who cares" ... They are right. Who cares?

It's about the need to feel safe - but can you? It's about a blood stained history, where we can't even count or name all the times our people were butchered and slaughtered. (And we've just been through Passover) It's about a long list of names and dates and deaths. (Not even mention my personal list of names and faces. Just to name a few: Shalhevet, Hadas, Efrat, Eyal, Gilad, Naftali-) It's about generational trauma, written in our DNA (Hide. Run. Live). It's about 1943 Jewish in (not yet) Israel making plans what to do if (when) Rommel will arrive [where will you run?], It's the 1950-60s and european being called weak, and "why didn't you fight?" ( Why did you go like lamb to the slaughter?). It's the 60-70s, and North-African being told "you're lying" when talking about concentration camps and forced workers in Libya, Tunisia, Algeria ("But my MOTHER was there!") It's about everyone we forgot - because everyone who ever knew them is gone. (It's about the remains: One-from-town, two-from-family, a cinder saved from the fire). It's about remembering, Remember and never forget. Who cares? (I do)

[palmtreepalmtree]

Some random thoughts on this fast day:

Services were very bleak today, even though the subject of the sermon was 'love.' Things have been pretty traumatic in the Jewish community the last year.

I'm desperate to break fast, but I don't feel like seeing my cousin's in-laws right now (the hosts). Happy to see the rest of my family though.

I am watching Bad Sisters and I have never felt as strongly like I want to reach through the screen and murder this brother-in-law myself. That's some good writing.

I have such a bad headache from fasting. Not sure why I still fast, but I guess it just feels weird not to.

Thanks everyone who responded to that weird sparkling water thing. It made me laugh.

Better get ready for break fast.

[linnaealyn]

[childofeberron]

very brave of me to extend a hand and something that's ""mine"" to someone who has historically not respected me or the things i care about. very demure very mindful

[herrlichersonnigertag]

I love waking up on Yom Kippur morning with an agonizing migraine that doesn’t respond to medication and lying in the dark for twelve hours and missing yizkor and neilah. It’s great 👍

[curtis-brothers-hug]

Whichever Curtis brother ends up having a son, names him Daniel. “It’s after my father.” “Wasn’t your father’s name Darrel?”

daniel kuritskiy wasn't darrel curtis until the age of 24

of course, he had changed it when he got to America. he wasn't a fool. if he had known anything from what he had survived it was that no matter how safe he could feel it could be taken away at any moment, and changing his last name was safe, and his first name too, while he was at it. mrs mathews knew what she was talking about, her husband had done the same thing, and he took her advice. all it took was learning a manufactured, harder, happier sounding southern accent, losing the polish one (though it still came out from time to time but not enough to be suspicious, not enough to be a bother), and he was applying for a job (because you have to make money and you have to move on) at the roofing company who were hesitant to take him seeing how frail he first looked but soon hired him when they saw how strong.

daniel kuritskiy became darrel curtis, and it wasn't as much for them, as for him -- it was easier to let it go and insurmountably harder.

darrel curtis as a father and husband is the happiest man alive. goofy as hell, cracking joke after joke, you'd hear him laughing at least once a day (because what else was there to do but cry). Sometimes he doesn't even take himself seriously. sometimes his wife wishes he would stop joking but remembers it's a necessity. sometimes his kids will get a little concerned at how happy he gets.

daniel kuritskiy will still come out, from time to time, but his son who bears his chosen name is the only one of his children who will ever see it. darry remembers a time, only once, seeing his father cry -- only once, and he never mentioned it, and it was never spoken of -- in his mother's arms, breaking down over his family he had lost, of the terrors he had endured. it was enough left unspoken.

as darrel curtis jr. remains in the synagogue for yizkor (remembrance) every year now at yom kippur, holding ponyboy, steadying sodapop, hearing the old couples (the only others remaining) murmur, too young to stay for yizkor. ain't right, all he can think about while he stares across the room at the parents of a kid he once knew from the playground as chaim brillstein is that those old folks said the same thing about darrel curtis sr., too, never knowing a man named daniel kuritsky.

[yiddish-shmues]

Yiddish Resources Masterpost

Apps and Websites

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Polygloss (app)

Quizlet Vocab Set (in progress)

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Oxford School of Rare Jewish Languages

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PDFs:

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Literature, Archives and Recordings:

Edward Blank Vilna YIVO Online Collection

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In Geveb - A Journal of Yiddish Studies

Jewish Public Library

Jewish Women's Archive

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Online Treasury of Yiddish Poetry

Steven Spielberg Digital Library

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Yizkor Book Collection

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Yiddish Keyboard

[pomegranateandhoney]

Just added Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur service information to my shared Google calendar w/my partner -- and realize this year I will be bringing my son 😭🥰 with me to services.

I couldn't help but remember some years back, going to shabbat services with my then-girlfriend, watching one of the parents with his son leading kiddush. Back then I still had a deep-seated belief that I would never get to have children, which is a completely different story -- but it would always make me just a little teary with longing to see tiny hands and hear little voices saying our prayers.

Here I am now, years later, typing this as my son sleeps in the bassinet across from me. He is still so small, he still doesn't really perceive my prayers for him, still doesn't really even comprehend that he's a separate entity from me -- but in October, I'll bring him to the synagogue to begin the new year, a part of my own little family and our larger Jewish family. We'll say Yizkor for his grandfathers. So many firsts, so many new things.

So many blessings.

בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.

[girlactionfigure]

The holiday of Sukkot is followed by an independent holiday called Shemini Atzeret.

In Israel, this is a one-day holiday; in the Diaspora it is a two-day holiday, and the second day is known as Simchat Torah.

This holiday is characterized by utterly unbridled joy, which surpasses even the joy of Sukkot. The joy reaches its climax on Simchat Torah, when we celebrate the conclusion—and restart—of the annual Torah-reading cycle.

The special joy of this holiday celebrates the conclusion—and restart—of the annual Torah-reading cycle.

These two days constitute a major holiday, when most forms of work are prohibited. On the preceding nights, women and girls light candles, reciting the appropriate blessings, and we enjoy nightly and daily festive meals, accompanied by kiddush. We don’t go to work, drive, write, or switch on or off electric devices. We are permitted to cook and to carry outdoors (unless it is also Shabbat).

The first day, Shemini Atzeret, features the prayer for rain, officially commemorating the start of the Mediterranean (i.e., Israeli) rainy season, and the Yizkor (prayer supplicating G‑d to remember the souls of the departed).

We no longer take the Four Kinds, and we no longer mention Sukkot in the day’s prayers; in the Diaspora, however, we do still eat in the sukkah (but without reciting the blessing on it).

The highlight of the second day, Simchat Torah (“The Joy of the Torah”), is the hakafot, held on both the eve and the morning of Simchat Torah, in which we march and dance with the Torah scrolls around the reading table in the synagogue. (In many synagogues, hakafot are conducted also on the eve of Shemini Atzeret.)

On this joyous day when we conclude the Torah, it is customary for every man to take part in the celebration by receiving an aliyah. The children, too, receive an aliyah!

After the final aliyah of the Torah, we immediately begin a new cycle from the beginning of Genesis (from a second Torah scroll); this is because as soon as we conclude studying the Torah, G‑d’s infinite wisdom, on one level, we immediately start again, this time to discover new and loftier interpretations.

(In the Land of Israel, the celebration and customs of these two days are compressed into one day.)

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Service Leaders: It's customary for people whose parents are still alive to leave for Yizkor, so-

Me:

[historicity-was-already-taken]

I pre-ordered your book, and got my copy of the new (Samuel Kassow) translation of Rokhl Auerbach's Warsaw Testament! I think the only other writing of Auerbach's I've read was the Yizkor piece you shared, and I'm curious if you've had the chance to read this yet.

I actually corresponded with him about his translation a few years ago! He is SUCH a lovely guy. Also! Thank you for letting me know it’s out! I love her—she was actually almost one of the main figures in my book, but I had to change it up for argument-related reasons.

ETA: and THANK YOU for preordering 💚💚

[casavanse]

I read a book a Holocaust survivor wrote, about his experience in the concentration camps. I read about his suffering. I read about the apathy of the others around.

And I read, and I wonder, why?

I stand during the minute of silence. My nose itches, and I think about the people that were too hungry to move. Someone coughs.

And I think, and I wonder, why?

I sit in the sports hall near my school. There's a ceremony. A teacher reads the Yizkor. The students read their texts. Their words are hollow, there's no feeling to it. I drift off.

And I hear, and I wonder, why?

The ceremony is over. Students walk back to their classes, and so am I. They talk around me. I hear them laugh.

I don't talk. I don't laugh. I sit in the corner, staring at my phone. I think of the things I have to do later. I want to sleep.

I don't feel. And I wonder,

why?

[linnaealyn]

Wish we could've gotten some character interaction and resolution between these two. Dominia deserved more. So many characters deserved more, but I think the only thing she got was mostly Ramsus focused.