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The Bar Mitzvah

Personal Recollections

Many of us have interesting stories about the times that we became Bar or Bat Mitzvah. This was often a seminal time in our lives, often a time of celebration, sometimes bittersweet. We often remember such occasions as these in a sentimental way, as this marked an important time in our lives when we were supposed to reach the status of an adult. It was also a time that gave our parents and other family members great joy.

Alex Hecht, a Holocaust survivor from Balassagyarmat, Hungary, tells of the time right before the start of World War II when he became a Bar Mitzvah:

"I had my bar mitzvah in a synagogue, and in the synagogue I belonged to the choir at that time. I had a nice voice and my friends called on me to sing... And I remember something that I will never forget. My parents prepared a little party for my bar mitzvah’s occasion, and I found a little bottle. It wasn’t a little bottle, it was a liter bottle. And I smelled it, and I tasted and smelled cherry. It was a cherry liqueur. So I tasted a little. I said, “Oh, gee, that’s so good.” And I was having quite a bit of it. And when I was called up to the Torah to say my bar mitzvah and the Haftorah, I was so good. I was afraid before. I said to myself, “How will I survive?” Nevertheless, that helped me and they congratulated me after, that I did so well. And I remember that I had zigzagged as I walked up (laugh) to the beamer."

Bar mitzvahs


William
Weisbart,
New York,
1904

Max Fuchs,
Brooklyn,
New York
1929

Sandor Hecht.
Balassagyarmat,
Hungary
1938

Gerhard Schreiber,
Czernowitz,
Ukraine
1941

Chiel Mendel
Melman,
Paris, France
1942

Shiku Smilovic,
Munkács,
Hungary
1945

Bar Mitzvah Ceremony,
Vienna, Austria
1931

A Bar Mitzvah in
Opatów, Poland,
1920s-30s




 


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