Video: Emotional Bar Mitzvah for 89-Year-Old Survivor

A Holocaust survivor who referred to himself as only a ‘half-Jew’ – since he never had a Bar Mitzvah – while speaking to a group of 8th grade boys from a Chicago-area Chabad school, ended up having an impromptu Bar Mitzvah celebration at the Skokie Holocaust Museum and Education Center.

Over the course of the past couple of weeks, both 8th grade classes had the opportunity to visit the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center in Skokie. Through the private, guided tour, the students were able to see artifacts, pictures and videos from this dark time of our history, and were able to stand inside a genuine cattle-car from the period.

The highlight of the trip was definitely hearing the first-hand account of Mitchell Winthrop, born Mietek Weintraub in November 1926 in Lodz, Poland. He was expelled from his home only weeks before his thirteenth birthday, eventually surviving the sheer brutality of Auschwitz, Mauthausen, and a death march, among other atrocities.

The climax of the boys’ trip, however, came at the very end, when one of our students asked Mr. Winthrop, “Whatever happened with your Bar Mitvah?”

His response was a sad one, not because he had never celebrated one, but because of the way he viewed himself as a result of never “having” a bar-mitzvah. “I am only half a Jew,” he said almost painfully. “I have a circumcision, but I never had a bar-mitzvah.” He continued to tell them how his grandparents had been orthodox, his great-grandfather a Rov and that he had studied for his bar-mitzvah. He also proudly showed them a picture of his family, pointing out his father, grandfather and great-grandfather.

“It’s never too late,” one of the students shot back, lifting his Tefillin bag, which he and another student had brought in the event that the Survivor from whom they would hear would be willing to wear them.

At first Mr. Winthrop thought they were kidding, but that lasted only a brief moment. His face turned bright red, partially from being put on the spot, but also clearly from the rush of emotion. A wide smile broke across his face, and his eyes were moist.

After being assured that he would be helped with the prayer, he gladly agreed to have his “Bar Mitzvah” right then and there. Not since preparing for his Bar Mitzvah had he donned Tefillin – never as an adult.

“Afterwards he told us how surprised he was that he remembered much of the brachas tefillin and Shema from so long ago. We danced with him, singing “siman tov u’mazal tov.” Watching this Survivor, this holiest of Jews, at long last believe and realize himself to be a full member of our nation was an inspiration unlike any other,” one of the teachers related.