Today, Thursday, 27 Nissan, 5782, seventy-seven years late – This morning, about 50 Holocaust survivors from Eastern Europe marked the bar and bat mitzvahs they were not privileged to celebrate due to the horrors of the Holocaust.
The survivors were greeted by the rabbi of the Western Wall and holy sites, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, and by the director of Lichyot BeKavod, Rabbi Erez
Karlnshtein.
The event was initiated by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the Claims Conference and by the Lichyot BeKavod organization. The event included a moving ceremony of lighting candles in memory of the survivors’ family members who were not privileged to move to Israel and come to Jerusalem and to the Western Wall.
“Thank you for the honor you are giving us today. We did not think we would reach this. This is an emotional day. We have a small country with a huge heart.” This was how Malka, a Holocaust survivor from Ukraine, summed up this moving day.
