“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.
With the passing of Pope Francis: Recalling his historic moment of prayer at the Western Wall
Pope Francis during his visit to the Western Wall in 2014: “I came here to pray and asked God to bring peace between peoples.”
23 Nissan 5785
April 21, 2025
