Agudas Achim Synagogue (Chicago,IL) | Donor Plaques

One of the offices in the Agudas Achim Synagogue; the bronze plaques are Yahrzeit plaques. According to website visitor B. Powell, "They show the name of a deceased person, along with the birthdate and date of death. It’s Jewish tradition to say Kaddish for deceased family members on the anniversary of their death (yahrzheit) and during certain times of the year when we say Yizkor (memorial services for the deceased, 4x per year).

Many of the synagogues that actively maintain these boards (the practice is slowly being abandoned because of cost) will have small light bulbs next to each name that will be turned on during the week of the Yahrzeit."