Yaacov Scheibitz waited 70 years for the moment when he could celebrate his bar mitzvah. In 1941, the Nazis arrived at his family’s home in the Ukraine, and his mother took him and his 5-year-old brother and fled eastward. But their flight was delayed after his mother injured her leg. Yaacov went in search of food, but when he returned, he discovered that his mother and little brother had been killed by a Nazi bomb. Yaacov was forced to survive the war on his own and at the age of 17, enlisted in the Red Army to fight the Germans. In 1992, he made aliyah, penniless. Thanks to Keren Hayesod, he found a home at an Amigour sheltered facility for the elderly. Several years later, the good people at Amigour learned that because of the war, Yaacov had never celebrated his bar mitzvah. They went into action and decided to help him fulfil his dream: they held a moving ceremony at the Western Wall for Yaakov and 30 other residents who never celebrated their bar mtzvahs; the participation of a group of soldiers made the occasion even more festive. With the support of Keren Hayesod donors, the Amigour Company provides sheltered housing, a supportive social framework and a warm home for 7,500 impoverished elderly people, most of them immigrants and Holocaust survivors. Thanks to Keren Hayesod and the State of Israel, Amigour is currently building another 2,650 apartments at 16 sites around the country for thousands of additional seniors. “I waited 70 years for this moment”, Yaakov said after his bar mitzvah celebration. “I am doing this not only to honor my mother, but also to honor the six million who were murdered by the Nazis”.
Photo: Yaacov Scheibitz at his bar mitzvah celebration at the Western Wall, Jerusalem, 2013