“This is a great day for me. I was not privileged to experience a bar mitzvah. Rather, I experienced continuous escape during the Second World War, with severe hunger. My family was murdered before my eyes.
Celebrating my bar mitzvah brings me serenity. And today I return to being a 13-year-old boy.”
So said Avraham Alstar, 83-years old, who celebrated – along with 9 other Holocaust survivors – a moving bar mitzvah at the Western Wall.
רב הכותל
Respect for Tradition – Parashat Ha’azinu
Parashat Ha’azinu 5787 Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites During these significant days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, every
6 Tishrei 5787
September 17, 2026
