Zichronot

Every generation receives a legacy and adds to it. Through remembrance, we honor those who came before us. Through our actions, we become part of the legacy we leave to those who follow.

What Is Yizkor?

Yizkor is the Jewish memorial service observed four times each year: on Yom Kippur, Shemini Atzeret, the last day of Pesach, and the second day of Shavuot. Our Book of Remembrance is used during each of these services, giving each of us the opportunity to pause, read, and reflect on the names of those we remember.

What Is Zikaron?

Zikaron means remembrance. Zichronot, the plural, means remembrances or memories.

In Jewish tradition, remembrance is not simply recalling the past. It is an active practice. Memory shapes identity. Memory shapes community. Memory shapes the future.

Remembrance is not only how we honor the past. It is how we shape what comes next.

The Book of Remembrance

The Book of Remembrance is both personal and communal. Each listing honors someone deeply loved. Together, all of those names tell the story of our congregation.

Each family remembers lives woven into its own story. Together, HBT remembers generations.

Why We Remember Together

Judaism does not ask us to remember alone. We gather throughout the year for minyan, where Kaddish is recited and remembrance is held within the community. By being present for one another, we become part of our shared remembrance.

Community is not incidental to remembrance. Community is part of remembrance itself.

The Bronze Plaques

The names on our bronze memorial plaques are not just names. Some have been there for over seventy years. These were people who built our congregation, served on committees, taught children, welcomed newcomers, celebrated simchas, comforted mourners, and sustained Jewish life here.

We may not know every story. But we are living in the congregation they helped build.

Remembrance extends beyond people to place: every classroom, every chair, every siddur, every tree, every door handle. Someone cared. Someone left a legacy. Now it is ours.

In Memory, We Act

During Yizkor, we remember loved ones by name and relationship, and we pledge to honor their memories through the way we live. Through tzedakah, acts of loving kindness, compassion, service, and the work of tikkun olam, remembrance becomes action. Memory becomes legacy not through the name alone, but through the lives we shape because we carry it.