We mentioned Arie in shul and showed our family and friends a picture of him with his family at my Bar Mitzvah so Arie’s memory really became a part of my special day.
Leo celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on
12 November 2022 at Hampstead Garden Suburb Synagogue
On Shabbat 12th November 2022 I celebrated my Bar Mitzvah in London. I read Parshat Vayera at Hampstead Garden Suburb shul and we had a brilliant party that night.
I’ve grown up hearing stories about my great grandpa Aron’s heroic escape from a train which was headed for Auschwitz and I often thought about most other people on that train who weren’t so lucky and were murdered at their destination. It made me think of the children on that train who never experienced a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.
When my parents suggested I twin my Bar Mitzvah with a child who was killed in the Holocaust I liked the idea of remembering one of the millions of children who never reached this milestone. The night before my Bar Mitzvah I lit a candle to remember Arie Geller from Poland who was killed in the Holocaust at the age of 7.
I am now a Guardian of the Memory and I’ll light a candle every year on that weekend so Arie will never be forgotten.
We mentioned Arie in shul and showed our family and friends a picture of him with his family at my Bar Mitzvah so Arie’s memory really became a part of my special day.