JERUSALEM: A group of Holocaust survivors celebrate belated bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies at Jerusalem's Western Wall

Record ID: 861127

  • Title: JERUSALEM: A group of Holocaust survivors celebrate belated bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies at Jerusalem's Western Wall
  • Date: 22nd October 2012
  • Summary: MAN PLAYING ON INSTRUMENT HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS AT CEREMONY
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem
  • City:
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: History,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA668K8RQG4QM08BSPWMD59BDXP
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: 70 years after they escaped death camps, they stood at Judaism's holiest site to celebrate their rite of passage.
    16 Holocaust survivors were blessed at Jerusalem's Western Wall in a moving bar/bat mitzvah ceremony in the presence of friends and relatives.
    The 82 year old Ayal Kalman, who was at the Romanian Nazi's ghetto, celebrate his bar mitzvah at the Western wall after he retired.

    "I retired, and I have the pleasure to be here in order to participate in this very emotional celebration," Kalman told Reuters Television.
    Jews around the world traditionally celebrate their Bar Mitzvah, for boys at the age of 13, or Bat Mitzvah for girls at the age of 12. The religious ceremony for boys is held in a synagogue where the boy who had just come-go-age is reading from Torah in front of the congregation for the first time.
    From these ages on, boys and girls are considered to bare all religious duties.

    "Today was an amazing day... I'm still very excited, I never thought I can still go through all of this. This is something really divine. I'm not a religious man at all but this thing is very exciting, very exciting. It's a good thing that I had this," said Menashe Tirkfeld, who according to Jewish tradition should have celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at age 13.
    But instead of celebrating with friends and family decades ago, Tirkfeld spent his time in a ghetto in his hometown of Chernovitz, where the Nazis had burnt down the synagogue and forbidden any public prayers.
    The Nazis killed 6 million Jews across Europe during World War Two, in addition to perpetrating legal and other forms of persecution against them for being members of their faith.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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