A 78-year-old bar mitzvah boy

[Phx_Dem]

He survived the Holocaust as a young boy and only now, at a delay of 65 years, 78-year-old Arieh Czeizler will celebrate his bar mitzvah and read from the Torah.

Czeizler, who is one of Moshav Kerem Maharal’s veteran residents, raises cattle for a living. Four years ago he relayed the story of his childhood during the Holocaust to the children of the moshav.

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On the way, some of the group’s members asked him if he had a bar mitzvah. “My grandfather taught me how to put on tefillin (phylacteries) and read the haftarah (Hebrew bible texts), but the Germans took us before I managed to read from the Torah,” said Czeizler.

His sad story touched the delegation members’ hearts and they offered to organize a bar mitzvah ceremony in which they would participate with their family members and Czeizler’s children and grandchildren.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3583537,00.html