Never too late (illustration)
Photo: Yonat Atlas
A 78-year-old bar mitzvah boy
Holocaust survivor Arieh Czeizler to celebrate bar mitzvah at 65-year delay, because 'Germans took us before I managed to read from the Torah’
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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Amongst the children were the sons of a senior Air Force commander who told their father about what they heard.
The officer was touched and invited Czeizler to join a military delegation at the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland as part of a project called “Witnesses in Uniform.”
As part of the project, military delegations visit death camps and Jewish sites in order to conduct a memorial ceremony there and do some maintenance work. Each mission is accompanied by a Holocaust survivor who tells the story of that horrific period in time.
“My daughters were afraid about the trip, but I felt that I wanted to return to that place as a free man,” said Czeizler, who lost his mother and 41 additional close family members.
“When I entered Auschwitz with the IDF delegation I felt that this was my victory and my revenge.”
Last month, Czeizler went on an additional mission headed by former Shayatet 13, Israel’s naval commando commander, Brigadier General Ram Rotberg.
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.
The excited Czeizler agreed, and his bar mitzvah ceremony is expected to take place next month at the synagogue in his moshav.
Reuven Weiss contributed to this report
