You can set up a memorial fund in someone's name in an afternoon, in time for the shloshim or a yahrzeit.
Flowers are not a Jewish funeral custom. Giving tzedakah in a person's memory is, and a memorial fund gathers those gifts in one place, in their name.
First decide who the money is for, because that decides whether gifts are tax-deductible.
A memorial fund either helps the family the person left, or carries on something they cared about. Both are good, and they are opened in different ways.
For the family.
Funeral costs, the rent, the children's schooling. A relative or a friend opens a fundraiser for a person or a family and says who the money is for. Gifts to a person are not tax-deductible, and the page and every receipt say so. Gifts are one-time, and Israel.com checks a family fundraiser before it takes gifts, usually within a day.
For a cause they loved.
Their synagogue, the school they taught at, a charity they gave to every year. Ask that organization to open the fund as its own campaign, in their name. Donors get a tax receipt in the organization's name, and the fund can take monthly gifts too.
The Jewish year of mourning gives a memorial fund its moments.
Shiva is the seven days after the burial, and shloshim the first thirty. For a parent, Kaddish is said for eleven months and mourning lasts a year. The yahrzeit, the anniversary on the Hebrew date of the death, comes back every year, and many families give in the person's memory on the day. The yahrzeit calculator finds it for the next fifteen years.
The funeral
The notice goes out
Open the fund now, so the notice and the online obituary can carry its link.
Seven days
Shiva
Visitors to the house ask what they can do. A printed QR code by the door answers them.
Thirty days
Shloshim
Many families dedicate the fund at the shloshim gathering, and say what it will do.
Eleven months
Kaddish for a parent ends
A note to everyone who gave, with what their gifts have done.
Every year
The yahrzeit
The Hebrew anniversary comes back each year, and the page can be shared again on the day.
A memorial page needs a name, a few true sentences and one clear purpose.
It needs six things, and none of them takes long.
- The name everyone knew them by, and their Hebrew name if the family uses it, such as Miriam bat Yosef.
- The years they lived, or the dates of birth and death.
- Two or three sentences about who they were, the kind people will recognize at once.
- What the money will do, in one sentence: a scholarship, the kiddush they sponsored every year, the reading corner at their school.
- A goal tied to that purpose. Amounts in multiples of 18, for chai, are a long custom: the page starts at $18, $36, $100, $180 and $360.
- One photograph the family chose.
By Daniel Kaplan, for his mother's memory
The Miriam Kaplan Memorial Fund
Miriam Kaplan (Miriam bat Yosef), 1941 to 2026, taught first grade for thirty-one years. Her family is raising $5,400 to stock the reading corner of the school where she taught.
A gift to a person or a family. Not tax-deductible.
Families share a memorial fund in five places, and each one needs only a line.
- 1
The funeral notice and the online obituary
One line at the end, with the link: the sample is just below.
- 2
The family WhatsApp group
A short message from the page's share kit, which writes it with the page's own link.
- 3
The synagogue's email
The same email that gives the shiva times can carry the fund, if the rabbi or the office agrees.
- 4
The shiva house
Each page prints a poster with a QR code, on Letter or A4 paper, for the table by the door.
- 5
The shloshim and the yahrzeit
A few words on the day: what the fund has done so far, and the link again.
The line for the notice and the obituary
ExampleIn lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts be made to the Miriam Kaplan Memorial Fund: [the page's link]
The message for the family group
ExampleWe have opened a fund in Mom's memory, for the reading corner at the school where she taught for thirty-one years. If you would like to give, this is the link: [the page's link]
Gifts to a person are not tax-deductible, and the money goes straight to the bank account you give.
Every donor sees that a gift to a person or a family is not tax-deductible, on the page and on their receipt. If a tax receipt matters to the people who will give, open the fund through a synagogue, school or charity instead.
Israel.com charges the family nothing. The donor pays the card processing fee on top, so the whole gift reaches the fund, and may add a tip to Israel.com. Gifts are paid into the bank account given at sign-up, about two business days after each one.
What people ask about memorial funds
What is a memorial fund?+
Money raised in someone's name after their death, either for their family or for a cause they cared about. In Jewish practice it takes the place of flowers: giving tzedakah in a person's memory is the custom.
How do I set up a memorial fund?+
Decide who the money is for, write the person's name, a few sentences about them and what the money will do, choose a photo, and open the page. On Israel.com a fund for a person or a family takes two minutes of questions and then 10 to 20 minutes for the bank and identity details of whoever receives the money.
Are gifts to a memorial fund tax-deductible?+
Gifts to a person or a family are not tax-deductible. A fund that a synagogue, school or charity runs for its own work, in the person's name, gives donors a tax receipt in the organization's name.
What is shloshim?+
The first thirty days of mourning, counted from the day of the burial. Many families mark its end with a gathering, a talk or a study session in the person's memory.
When is the yahrzeit?+
On the Hebrew date of the death, every year. The civil date moves from year to year, and the yahrzeit calculator gives the next fifteen.
What should an "in lieu of flowers" line say?+
Keep it to one sentence with the fund's name and link: "In lieu of flowers, the family asks that gifts be made to the Miriam Kaplan Memorial Fund", followed by the address of the page.
Can a friend set up the fund for the family?+
Yes. A friend or relative can open a fundraiser for a person or a family and say who the money is for and how they know them. Israel.com checks it before it takes gifts, usually within a day.