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Hearing Yisrael’s story of his very short life has really taught me to appreciate everything that I have

Harrison celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on
12 January 2022 at Chigwell and Hainault Shul

I am so honoured to be sharing my Bar Mitzvah today with a young boy who never had the chance to be called to the Bimah and say a Bar Mitzvah portion or become a Jewish man.

Thanks to the Yad Vashem UK Bar Mitzvah Twinning Programme, I was given the chance to research and learn about a special boy who shares my name Yisrael Grobord. Yisrael was a 6-year boy born in 1935 and was brutally murdered in a ghetto in Ukraine in 1941. I managed to find his niece on Facebook – she is a nurse living in Tel Aviv and she was very touched to learn that we will be honouring Yisrael today.

Hearing Yisrael’s story of his very short life has really taught me to appreciate everything that I have

Yisrael never grew up to have a life, future, or family – so I call out your name Yisrael Grobord together with my name Shlomo Yisrael as I become a man in the Jewish law. I will keep your memory alive

Shabbat Shalom

Twin Now
See how others have reached their goal as our
Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah kids are sharing their stories.

Jordan Pearlman Twinned
with Urichem Ziechnik

Jordan celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on 29 August 2020. He had a zoom with family and friends from London and all around the world on Thursday 27 August 2020. He was lucky enough to lein in Shul on Shabbat morning 29 August 2020.
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Joshua Newman Twinned
with Josua Boesenach

Joshua twinned with Josua Boesenach who was born in June 1931. He was deported age 12 to Auschwitz and murdered in a gas chamber. He never got to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. “As I celebrate my Bar Mitzvah he will be on my mind."
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Leora Moher Twinned
with Alice Chana Grunwald

I had my Bat Mitzvah in July 2019. For my Bat Mitzvah, I twinned with Yad Vashem UK Foundation. They twinned me with a girl named Alice Chana Grunwald, a surname that my family also used. Sadly, Alice Chana did not survive to celebrate her Bat Mitzvah, as she perished at Auschwitz.
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Ella Kaufman Twinned
with Ruth Shafir

I was very happy to meet you at my home and that you wish to commemorate my sister Ruth. For your Bat Mitzvah, you have chosen a project to remember a young girl of about your age who perished in the Holocaust
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Barney Leboff Twinned
with Carol Smulovici

Barney Leboff, from Shenley wanted to do something more than leyn from the Torah for his Bar mitzvah, so he twinned his Bar Mitzvah with Carol Smulovici, a young Romanian boy who was murdered during the Holocaust.
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