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I will become a guardian of his memory

Zack celebrated his Bar Mitzvah on
11 February 2023 at Chigwell and Hainault Synagogue

I am very fortunate to live at a time where I am free to celebrate my Bar Mitzvah. Sadly, this has not always been the case. Tzvi Reif was born in Poland in 1937 just a few short months before Germany invaded and World War II began. Tzvi was an innocent boy who shares the same first name as me and my family also come from Poland as our original family name was Tanski. Tzvi did not live long enough to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah as he was murdered by the Nazis, alongside 6 million of our ancestors, when he was just 5 years old.

Thanks to the Yad Vashem UK Twinning Project, my celebration today is also in his honour and I will become a guardian of his memory, lighting a candle in remembrance of Tzvi every year on Yom HaShoah.

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.
Read my story

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
Read my story

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.
Read my story