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ICEJ caring for the Holocaust Survivors By Birte Scholz
It’s never too late for a Bar Mitzvah
When Canadian Prime Minister Stephen J. Harper paid a state visit to Israel in January, he was accompanied by a large 250-member official delegation. ICEJ-Canada national director Donna Holbrook was in his entourage and invited Canadian MP Mark Adler to come with her to Haifa for a visit of the ICEJ’s Home for Holocaust survivors. The son of survivors himself, Adler is a prominent member of the growing Jewish community in Toronto and was keen to tour the home and meet the residents. The visit turned out to be an extremely moving encounter for him, as he kept listening to their stories and
At the ICEJ’s unique Home for Holocaust survivors in Haifa, the residents have learned to make the most of each day they have left. But one special day in life for every young Jewish boy or girl was denied many of them when they were children due to the Nazi persecution of Jews. Even in all the years since World War II, they had never been able to celebrate their bar or bat mitzvahs marking their entry into adulthood.
So on January 27th, when many in the international community were marking the UN’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day, eleven Holocaust survivors at the Haifa Home, among them five men and six women ages 70 to 85 years old, celebrated their bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs together.
“When I was 13 years old, I was forced to work in Auschwitz and was not able to celebrate my bar mitzvah”, said Abraham Ekroni, now 82. “Every day I had to drag stones to a building site. The guards shouted at me: ‘Faster, faster, damned Jew!’ Mengele had selected me to work in Auschwitz, and I had to burn the corpses of my dead grandparents in the crematories.”
“It is unbelievable that I can celebrate my bar mitzvah as a grandpa now. I have no words to express my joy”, Abraham added, as his wife, daughter and one of his grandsons joined him in singing and dancing.
Abraham and his four friends at the Haifa Home covered their shoulders with prayer shawls and put on tefillin before reading from the Books of Moses and dancing with the Torah scroll.
Canadian MP deeply moved by Haifa Home visit
simply did not want to leave for his next appointment. At one point, MP Adler noticed an historic photo from the Holocaust on the wall of a display at the home and noticed his uncle was in the picture. He later wrote in a newsletter to his supporters that: “It was a special morning for me touring a home for Holocaust survivors in Haifa…
The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem runs this home, with 70 residents who all survived the Holocaust. It was a privilege to meet the survivors and hear their stories. The memory of my father, who also survived the concentration camps, is always on my mind.”
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