Brass yahrzeit commemorative plaque from a synagogue

This yahrzeit plaque bears the name of a deceased person and was affixed to a memorial board in the synagogue, near a small light kindled on the Hebrew anniversary of the death. Yahrzeit, a Yiddish term designating this anniversary, is marked by the lighting of a lamp and the recitation of Kaddish in memory of the departed. These brass plaques, aligned on a commemorative panel, perpetuated the remembrance of the deceased within the community and indicated to the congregation the date to be commemorated. An object of collective Memory, the yahrzeit plaque illustrates the institutionalization of the remembrance of the dead in the Ashkenazic synagogue.