Current Guinness world record holder for oldest living man, Yisrael Kristal, is set to experience the Jewish coming-of-age ceremony (Bar Mitzvah) at the ripe young age of 113 years old in just a few short weeks. Mr. Kristol, a native of Poland, is a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust; having spent time in the Auschwitz death camps where over 1 million people died during World War II. Yisrael was supposed to have gone through this ceremony at the age of 13 — in 1916 — but, because of his mother’s death and his father’s conscription into the Russian army, he was never able to do so.
Shulamit Kuperstoch, Kristal’s daughter, believes it will be a “corrective experience” for him. The BBC reports:
“They will bless him and sing with him and dance with him and give out candies,” she said. “We are excited, we’re happy, it is a great honor to celebrate his bar mitzvah. He has children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and cousins and everyone is coming.”
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