Yizkor is a memorial prayer for the departed that the hassidé Ashkenaz established as a reaction to the brutal losses suffered by the Ashkenazic communities during the crusades.
It’s not my custom to say yizkor.
I don’t think yizkor is appropriate to Yom Tob.
I stepped out of the synagogue when they said yizkor.
But never have I felt the emotional impetus behind the establishing of yizkor as a minhag, as I did this year.
It’s astonishing to consider the loss of over 1,200 people in a single day, just one year later.
May their memory be a blessing and a revolution.