Yizkor.com

Karen and I founded Seraphic Secret in May 2004 at the urging of our dear friend, Jackie Danicki, as we were casting about for an effective way to memorialize our beloved son Ariel Chaim ZT’L.

We are the sum of our memories, and when a loved one dies. It is remembrance of things past that nourish and sustain those who are left behind.

And so, it is with a great deal of pride that Seraphic Secret welcomes a new advertiser, Yizkor.com.

This website is a pioneering, non-profit initiative dedicated to permanently preserving the memory of Jewish men and women.

I have spent a great deal of time exploring Yizkor.com and yes, their offer of comfort, connection and continuity is accurate.

Yizkor.com has created a Jewish memorial site where you can post pictures, photos, and stories. Visitors can leave comments and words of comfort. You can upload videos or photo-video montages chronicling the life of the departed.

Possibilities are endless.

Yizkor.com is also a fine way to transmit Torah. Many who are niftar leave behind precious Torah scholarship that will never be published. Yizkor.com allows this Torah to be studied by countless visitors. Families and friends can harness the power of this website to transmit the precious writings of departed Torah scholars.

There’s also a wonderful feature where you link directly to the charity of the family’s choice. Visitors to the website have the ability to make virtual cemetery and shiva visits by leaving behind a story and memory—or just leaving a virtual stone. Too, visitors can learn about fallen soldiers, a most precious feature, and there is the ability to research the names of past community leaders.

Yizkor.com embraces the power of the internet to create, access, and share dynamic memorials. For many bereaved families, Yizkor.com assists in the healing process by uniting family and friends by drawing people together in a virtual community.

Yizkor.com ensures that future generations will be familiar with the legacy of their ancestors.

Again, Yizkor.com costs nothing.

Creating a memorial book is easy.

The layout and interface is simple and elegant.

Here’s just one example of a memorial that just went right through me;

Yulia Tratiakova 1980 – 2001

May 18, 2001 – Yulia Tratiakova, 21, of Netanya, was killed in a suicide bombing at Hasharon Mall in the seaside city of Netanya.

Yulia Tratiakova immigrated to Israel about six months ago from her home in the northern Caucasus, leaving behind her parents and younger sister. Three months ago, she met her boyfriend, German, who had immigrated five years earlier. Yulia was taking a special Hebrew course for nurses together with German’s sister.

Yulia Tratiakova went together with the Sorokin family to the mall on Friday morning, where Yulia and Vladislav Sorokin were killed.

Yulia is survived by her parents and sister, as well as by her grandmother who lives in Netanya.

Yulia, who very much wanted to live in Israel, was buried in Netanya.

I just spent a great deal of time navigating various memorials, and I confess that I have a lump in my throat the size of a walnut.