This is the usual request to send any corrections to the Yizkor list to me, but with a twist.

I have tried for several years to get an answer to my question regarding who should or should not be on the list, and who stays on the list, and why. If we were to have a discussion on the subject, the number of opinions probably would outnumber the number of participants in the discussion. In my opinion, the best and most satisfactory answer to this question I have ever received was from a Rabbi, who said that this congregation is so mixed and so small that we should just keep doing what we have been doing. so in the tradition of the Jewish faith and of this congregation, I want to include on the list the names of the loved ones who have departed in the way that those who loved them and are still living want them to be remembered and included.

I know this is not just a list of names, but a sacred list, a list of people we honor and remember, people we knew and loved who shared their lives with us and, in many cases, taught us how to be Jews, a people set apart, a family of God. This is a special and beautiful legacy that we could have received from no one else, one to wear proudly and with dignity, one that is before our eyes and in our hearts daily to guide, encourage, sustain, and comfort us through the calms and storms of this present life, one to share with each other and to pass on to our children and their children into the future. So in this list we have an unbreakable chain that binds us together as individual links, as families, and as a community, to both our past and our future. I want to preserve it as intact as possible for the benefit of present and future congregants. Doing so is a labor of love from me to you.

Joy Breslauer, Aitz Chaim Editor