Itongadol.- Fifty Holocaust survivors who were prevented from having a Bar Mitzvah by the genocidal Nazis finally did so during an emotional event at the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem on Monday.
The septuagenarians and octogenarians were given Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah ceremonies, which are normally staged for male and female Jews at age 12 or 13, in an event held ahead of Israel\’s Holocaust Memorial Day.
The 13 men and 37 women had mostly missed their ceremonies due to the war and its after effects, so Israel\’s government organized a joint one at the Kotel which is an outer wall of the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism.
The male survivors donned tefilin (phylacteries), and a number of them cried during the kaddish memorial prayer sung to commemorate the Holocaust.
Gal Moshe, an 80-year-old who came to Israel from Poland after World War II, said it was an emotional day.
"The memorial prayer moved me particularly as I thought of my family, and especially of my mother. I literally cried."
Moshe, who said he was unable to discuss the Holocaust, was never given a Bar Mitzvah in Poland.
After the war and emigrating, "the economic situation was so difficult for us that we didn\’t even think about doing the Bar Mitzvah."
"When I found out I could do a Bar Mitzvah now I wanted it a lot and I also asked my two grandsons to come with me. I was at their Bar Mitzvah and now they are at mine."