From an article by Ashley Zlatopolsky published in the thejewishnews.com web site:

In Judaism, we often hear the expression “may his or her memory be a blessing” when someone passes away.

I don’t recall where I first heard it, but someone once told me that as long as we continue to remember those who have since passed on, they remain alive. It’s only when we forget, that people — and eventually memories — begin to slip away.

It’s a guiding principle, along with the Jewish belief to honor the deceased, regardless of whether that person lived 20 or 200 years ago, that fuels my passion for genealogy and family history. By learning about our past — and the names and stories behind it — we continue to keep these precious memories alive for many generations to come.

JewishGen is the world’s leading organization in preserving this history. As the largest digital repository for Jewish family history information in the world, this free and searchable website houses millions of Jewish records from countries around the world, some of which are hundreds of years old. On JewishGen, people can search their family history to find ancestors, make genealogical trees and even discover living relatives.

Now, JewishGen Ukraine Research Division — which focuses solely on Ukraine records — is on a mission to preserve and digitize 1 million records in Ukraine by summer 2023.

These records, which are some of the last remaining documentation of hundreds of thousands of Jews who lived in the former Russian Empire (which included Ukraine), are at risk of disappearing forever.