(JNi.media) If you need an easy way to remember when and how to commemorate the Yahrzeit (memorial day for the departed) of a family member or friend, you may be interested in the first “Jewish Funeral and Yahrzeit Memorial App” for the iPhone. The App will provide directions to the cemetery, or to the funeral chapel from your current location, using iPhone’s GPS features.
In addition, the app offers a “Prayers and Meditations” section that can be referenced for a parent, a sibling, child or a friend. For the visually impaired, there are audio recordings of various prayers as well as the transliteration of all prayers from Hebrew to English.
“Plaza Jewish Community Chapel through its creative app brings the traditional and contemporary worlds together to help families during a most difficult time,” says Rabbi Joseph Potasnik, Plaza Board Member and an Executive Vice President of the New York Board of Rabbis.
App users also receive push notifications for the yearly Yahrzeit, for each Memorial they’ve created in the app, according to the Hebrew calendar. The app will calculate the correct date each year and send a push notification to the user’s iPhone. Traditionally, the Yahrzeit includes reciting the Mourner’s Kaddish Prayer, which can be found in the app, and lighting a Yahrzeit candle. It is also customary to make a charitable donation on the Yahrzeit, in memory of one’s family member or friend, and it can be done directly from the app.
For many, recognizing Yizkor is a very important time. It is a time to remember. Yizkor means “remembrance” in Hebrew and four times a year the app will send a Yizkor push notification. Reminders will arrive in time for Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot.
The app is also a resource for Jewish Funeral customs and etiquette, as well as for links to websites that may be helpful. A variety of fresh content will be added to the app, (without the need to download a new version), serving as an ongoing blog, with new Prayers and Meditations, Jewish customs and etiquette.
Click here to download this free App om itunes.
