70 Years Later: An Emotional Bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall

10 Holocaust survivors arrived yesterday (Monday) at the Western Wall to celebrate the bar mitzvah they had missed while fleeing from the Nazis. "Today I've become 13 again," one of them, Avraham Elster, said with great emotion.

Avraham, along with 9 other Holocaust survivors like him, never had the chance to celebrate their bar or bat mitzvah. "Who had the mindset for a bar mitzvah?" he told the website ynet, recalling his childhood memories. "We fled from the Nazis; we were in constant survival mode. Who could think of a bar mitzvah?!"

During the emotional event, 10 Holocaust survivors arrived at the Western Wall, the remnant of our Holy Temple. The men donned *tefillin* and were called up to the Torah one after another. The women also celebrated their belated bat mitzvah with blessings and wishes. The event was initiated by the Museum of Friends of Zion, in collaboration with the "Helping Hand" organization, and the Rabbi of the Western Wall also participated.

"Today I become a 13-year-old boy again," said Elster with deep emotion. "Celebrating my bar mitzvah gives me peace; it’s a big day for me. I never experienced a bar mitzvah, only constant fleeing during World War II, with severe hunger."

Elster shared the miracle of his rescue: When he was five months old, his parents fled Poland in haste and accidentally left him with his grandmother. "While fleeing, my parents asked each other, where is the baby? It turned out I was mistakenly left with my grandparents, but the driver didn’t want to go back. Eventually, after much persuasion, the driver returned, and my parents took me.

"After the war, it turned out I was saved from certain death. Immediately after my grandmother handed me over to my parents, she was murdered by the Nazis. That same day, my grandfather was severely abused, and his beard was burned. Only we survived.

The Elster family wandered destitute from place to place, trying to reach the Russian border, and from there they were sent to Siberia. "We suffered terribly there," says Avraham. "Finally, in 1950, we managed to immigrate to Israel from Uzbekistan."

Elster, who is now a great-grandfather to 11 great-grandchildren, notes that life in Israel was not easy. "Who even thought about a bar mitzvah?!" he says, acknowledging that now, with the celebration at the Western Wall, he has "returned to his youthful days." During the event, the survivors were given new *tefillin*.

Rabbi Zamir Cohen - Exciting discoveries about the power of *tefillin*:

What's special about the mitzvah of *tefillin*? Rabbi Zamir Cohen shares a wonderful piece about the virtue that influences the entire day with positive energies:

How to remain faithful after the horrors? Rabbi Lau in 4 powerful minutes: