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为什么有这么多的大屠杀幸存者在庆祝他们的酒吧/蝙蝠成人礼

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Mordechai “Murray” Miller, 88, was sick, and he wasn’t getting better. It was October, 2019, and, for the first time ever, he wouldn’t hear the shofar blow on Rosh Hashanah.

Distraught that he was missing the High Holidays, Miller’s son told their rabbi about his father’s predicament. Rabbi Mendel Teldon of Chabad of Mid-Suffolk in New York was happy to help — he went to Miller’s house and blew theshofar.

由于两个闲聊,拉比Teldon获悉,米勒从未有过的成年礼。为什么?因为当他转身13岁那标记的犹太男孩的男子汉气概,他在大屠杀期间,波兰树林党派躲藏。

“He never had the opportunity to mark [his bar mitzvah],” Teldon said.

But, thanks to the rabbi’s help, some 75 years later, Miller finally celebrated the traditional bar mitzvah he’d dreamed of. He was extremely sick, but he nonetheless achieved this Jewish rite of passage.

“It was a tremendous, tremendous moment,” Teldon remarked.

Miller is just one of hundreds of Holocaust survivors in recent years who have celebrated this coming-of-age ritual at a late stage. Just earlier this month, another80 survivors以色列各地聚集在科泰尔采取象征性仪式的一部分。几个月前,11月,来自法国的80名幸存者also traveled to the Kotel in conjunction with the Jewish Agency’s Educational arm, Israel Experience, and France’s United Jewish Social Fund for their own celebration. At a Los Angeles Jewish senior care center last summer, people were turned away from a packed event that celebrated survivor伊迪丝·弗兰基蝙蝠成人礼。

As we commemorate the75周年奥斯威辛集中营的解放,这个趋势是一个美丽的东西,以确保万无一失。虽然男孩自动成为一个成年礼,或一个人,当他转身13 - 和一个女孩变成一个蝙蝠成人礼,还是女人,当她打开12 - 准备先于酒吧/蝙蝠成人仪式标志着“精神来了的,反映了新的青少年的身体,智力和情感的里程碑,”根据年龄MJL。犹太成人,等转换,谁错过了“精神的时代的到来”可能经历两年托拉研究公开收回的精神遗产,他们没有机会体验充斥。

But why are Holocaust幸存者现在肯定自己的依恋犹太教?作为幸存者的数量逐渐减少,是什么力量迫使他们为了纪念他们早就过去的一个里程碑?

“It helps build the memory of the Shoah by highlighting the resilience and importance of Jewish identity,” Carlos Reiss, director of the Curitiba Holocaust Museum in Brazil, told our sister site,JTA.

据Teldon,这些大屠杀幸存者的孩子成年礼是不是仪式本身。相反,它是关于完成的东西,会自动发生几十年前 - 是一个酒吧/蝙蝠成人礼是不是你做的事,但你变得,他说。“你在你的13岁生日你的灵魂被激活时呼吸的那一刻,”他补充说,关于米勒的成年礼,“我认为这会是在收尾和留在他的生活百废待兴的事情的背景下一件很好的事。”

虽然他病得很重时,他在他的酒吧成人礼舞会的椅子上抬起,米勒的脸上闪耀着幸福。“你可以看到他的眼睛骄傲的东西,好吧,我想坐在他心中的70年后的幸福,” Teldon说。

他的成年礼一个月后,穆雷就死了。也许他在等待被捆绑起来的枝节问题。

Reiss confirmed with JTA that these survivor bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies have become a trend in recent years. But the ways in which these survivors mark the occasion can vary widely: Some survivors mark the coming-of-age ceremony on their own, while others opt for group celebrations organized by non-profits. This past December, for example, the Claims Conference, along with the Association of Romanian Olim in Haifa and the Western Wall Foundation, brought over 50 Romanian Holocaust survivors to the Kotel for a group b’nai mitzvah.

Among the bunch was Rachel Kivetz, who lost a toe during a pogrom in Romania. When asked how she felt about celebrating her bat mitzvah, she said she felt “blessed.”

“I feel like a 12-year-old child again,” Kivetz told the耶路撒冷邮报.“It’s just amazing.”

去年十一月在巴西,奥斯威辛集中营幸存者安道尔斯特恩,91,celebrated his bar mitzvahat Sao Paulo’s oldest synagogue on the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht. And on that same day Fred Behrend, 93, had his second bar mitzvah in New Jersey.

“My first bar mitzvah was in a schoolroom in Cuba with only 20 people, and the only gift I got was a used prayer book,” Behrend told Kveller. “Comparing this to the second bar mitzvah, the circumstances were so different. It was a very happy occasion, and it is an event I will never forget.”

之前,他的父亲被逮捕并送往萨克森豪森,他溜连日来他发现附近的一个旧的犹太教堂进他的口袋里。在撞击的交易与Nazis, Behrend’s father was released from the camp, under the condition that he liquidated his business and fled Germany with his family immediately. Before moving to the States, the survivors moved to Cuba for a year, in which Behdrend celebrated his first bar mitzvah.

That same yad, 80 years later, that his father stashed was used at Behrend’s second bar mitzvah.

“It all wove together as a beautiful, meaningful way to prove Hitler did not win,” Larry Hanover, a bar mitzvah tutor who co-authoredBehrend’s memoir,玻璃碎片重建:在美国,一个德国犹太人生活重拍, told Kveller.

Montreal-based survivor Johnny Jablon’s bar mitzvah celebration in 2018 encapsulates the importance of this trend among survivors. Born in Poland, Jablon, 93, never completed hisbar mitzvah- 他是在与他的拉比仪式研究之中时,战争爆发了。当他从不同的集中营穿梭,Jablon失去了他的整个家庭,包括16个阿姨,叔叔,和表亲。

移居加拿大战争结束后后,Jablon是强烈反对永远归还波兰。但之后他的妻子萨莉,死了,他的朋友鼓励他去拉比件批量Gniwisch率领的生活之旅的三月。

Gniwisch convinced Jablon to pick up where he left off and complete his bar mitzvah at the very synagogue he grew up attending.“这是你的报复,” Gniwisch告诉Jablon,作为活人的国际三月报告。“你欠自己收回what was taken from you.”

于是,他做到了。Jablon庆祝他的成年礼在蒂科钦synagogue通过欢乐面包围。

“It was surreal,” said Gniwisch. “We were in a shul that once had 4,000 members — all murdered in one day. Yet here it was, 79 years later, being used again, to help a survivor reclaim what was stolen from him.”

仪式结束后,会众手舞足蹈Jablon为他骄傲地笑了。“那你是怎么打的反犹太主义,”他说。“通过展示通过教育犹太人的骄傲。”

These bar/bat mitzvahs are not only important for the survivors themselves, but for current and future generations. The mantra “never again” may seem overplayed in the Jewish community, but anew surveyshows that most Americans don’t know that 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust. This grave data illustrates the chronic need for大屠杀教育和讲故事,并在上升反犹太主义,对大屠杀幸存者酒吧/蝙蝠成人礼,不管他们的年龄的脸。

通过Images图像由米拿现卡纳/纵梁

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