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Late barmitzvah for man who spent his 13th year in camps
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Photo © Clayhall United Synagogue |
Holocaust survivor Ivor Perl recently celebrated his bar-mitzvah at the age of 70 , having spent his 13th birthday peering through the barbed wire of a concentration camp. The emotional ceremony took place at Clayhall Synagogue, where the 80 guests included Ivor's wife of almost 50 years , Rhoda , their four children and six grandchildren. Ivor read the Maftir and special Haftorah for Parshat HaChodesh and at the end of the Sermon with the congregation standing received the tradtional bar-mitzvah blessing from Rabbi Jason Kleiman. "The idea of having a proper bar-mitzvah ceremony was really my family's" he explained. "The know how painful it was for me to have missed out during the war. Every time I go to shul for a barmitvah , it brings back painful memories and I'm hoping that this will help to purge the pain." I can vividly recall standing in the snow at the Kaufring-Allach concentration camp , on the day I should have been celebrating my bar-mitzvah in 1945. I had typhus and I was praying that someone would get me out of that hell." "We had just moved from Auschwitz and I had lost my family in the camps, including my mother, father, brothers and sisters. "A few years ago, I made an emotional return-visit to Hungary, where my family originally came from, and found that this lifted the weight I'd been carrying around for so long. I'm hoping that the bramitvah will be similarly therapeutic To mark the occasion, he has presented Clayhall with a bronze in memory of his family and other |
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"Those sorts of memories never leave you," added Mr Perl , who has written a book on his experiences , call "Chicken Soup Under the Tree: A Journey to Hell and Back."