About 320 bronze memorial plaques that hung for decades on the sanctuary wall of the Kingsbridge Center of Israel are coming down one at a time, and two men who once prayed in that room are trying to send every one of them back to the family that put it up.

Fred Smith and Richard Baum, both former members of the Kingsbridge synagogue, are leading the effort. This week they got help from an unexpected crew: eighth graders at SAR (Salanter Akiba Riverdale), the Jewish day school a few minutes away in Riverdale, who spent a school day sorting and cataloging the plaques with them. SAR has now committed to seeing the project through, and it is asking anyone with a family connection to the old congregation to get in touch.

How the plaques were found

According to SAR, the project started with a walk. A few weeks ago Smith was passing through Kingsbridge and went by the building where he had attended services as a boy. The Kingsbridge Center of Israel has closed, and the building is being converted into a church. Smith asked the pastor whether he could step inside. When he did, he found the memorial plaques still mounted on the wall where he remembered them, roughly 320 in all.

Smith and Baum decided the names should not simply disappear with the congregation. Their goal is to put each plaque back in the hands of the relatives who paid for it. Baum has taken on the slow work of translating the Hebrew name on each plaque into English, which is often the key to matching a plaque with a living family member.

What a memorial plaque is

In many synagogues, families dedicate a small plaque on a memorial wall when a parent, spouse or other relative dies. The plaque carries the person's name, usually in both Hebrew and English, along with the date of death. Each year on the anniversary of that date, known as the yahrzeit, the name is read aloud during services and a small light beside the plaque is switched on. SAR's description of the Kingsbridge wall notes that each plaque there had its own bulb lit on that day.

When a congregation closes, those walls are often the hardest thing to place. A plaque is personal to one family, but the family may have moved away decades ago, and the congregation's own records may be incomplete. That is why projects like this one depend on word of mouth: a cousin who remembers a grandparent's shul, a grandchild who recognizes a surname, or a neighbor who still knows someone from the old membership.

Eighth graders in the middle of it

SAR's eighth graders worked alongside Smith and Baum this week, handling the plaques one by one and logging the names so they can be searched and matched. The school tied the work to its theme for the year, built around the idea of a time to speak, which SAR described as including the act of making sure a remembered name is spoken again.

The school has laid out a simple plan for every plaque. If a family can be found, the plaque goes to that family. If no relative can be located, SAR will help find another synagogue willing to mount the plaque on its own memorial wall, so the name continues to be read on its anniversary.

A congregation that closed, a building that changed hands

The Kingsbridge Center of Israel no longer holds services, and its former home is being turned into a church. The pastor of the incoming congregation allowed Smith inside, which is how the plaques were found before the sanctuary was reworked. For the families named on that wall, many of whom may no longer live in the Bronx, the project is a chance to recover something they may not have known was still there.

Searching for a family name

People researching relatives can also look at the JewishGen Memorial Plaques Database, a free online index of plaque inscriptions from synagogues and societies around the world. It holds roughly 225,000 records and can be searched by surname, given name or town. It is a separate resource from the Kingsbridge project, but it is a useful place to check whether a relative was memorialized at other congregations as well.

How to claim a plaque or offer a wall

If you believe your family dedicated a plaque at the Kingsbridge Center of Israel, email the project at KCIPlaques@gmail.com with the name of the person memorialized and any details you have, such as the English or Hebrew name and the approximate year of death. Synagogues that are able to give an unclaimed plaque a permanent place can use the same address. You can also reach SAR directly through the contact page on its website, saracademy.org. SAR Academy's Jesselson Campus is at 655 West 254th Street in Riverdale, and the school's main number there is 718-548-1717.

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