Holocaust Survivors Experience Coming-of-Age Ceremonies Something extraordinary and profoundly moving took place at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on Monday.
Fifty elderly Holocaust survivors assembled there to participate in a traditional ceremony historically reserved for 13-year-olds. For centuries, Jewish youth the world over have celebrated a bar mitzvah (for boys) or bat mitzvah (for girls) at that age.
It recently came to light, however, that thousands of European Holocaust survivors living in Israel had never participated in this Jewish coming-of-age ceremony because of the horrors and disruptions of World War II. Thus a special ceremony for some of these distinct Israeli citizens was arranged and held at the Western Wall Plaza this week.
Many of the participants were moved to tears as the ceremony evoked memories of their lost adolescence.
Gal Moshe, for example, an 80-year-old who came to Israel from Poland after World War II, tried to describe the emotions he felt as he finally got to experience the rite of passage created to mark the transition into adulthood.
“The memorial prayer moved me particularly as I thought of my family, and especially of my mother. I literally cried.”
Moshe, who still finds it impossible to talk about his Holocaust experience, was never given a bar mitzvah in Poland. Even after the war and immigration to Israel, his family’s poverty made it impossible for him to have a belated ceremony. But Moshe’s tears found good company as a number of the survivors wept openly during a funeral prayer to commemorate the Holocaust.
Here at Jewish Voice Ministries we have some inspiring initiatives designed to extend compassion, comfort, and care to the poorest of Israel’s remaining Holocaust survivors.
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For your gift of $50 or more today, we’d like to show our appreciation by sending you a very special set of gifts. The Holocaust Remembrance lapel pin is inscribed with the Hebrew word “Remember,” and the unique design of new leaves budding from barbed wire speaks to the survival of the Jewish People and re-birth of the nation of Israel. You’ll also receive the book and DVD of “Trapped in Hitler’s Hell,” the powerful story of Holocaust survivor Anita Dittman.
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