A gathering of Jewish veteran soldiers who fought in World War II took place this week at the main Synagogue in the Western Ukrainian city of Zhitomir ahead of the victory day of the Russians over the Germans.
One of the participants, attending for the first time, was 88 year-old Choni Bravman.
Before the party, he was approached by the city’s rabbi and Chabad Shliach Shlomo Wilhelm to put on Tefillin.
Bravman answered that he remembers his father putting them on and praying every morning but he has never done so.
The military victory celebration was immediately declared as a Bar Mitzva ceremony too, with Bravman wrapped in Tefillin for the first time in his life.
“We celebrate the survival of our body which the Germans tried to kill and of our soul which the Communists tried to destroy,” Rabbi Wilhelm concluded.
rabbi wilhelm, u make us proud by keeping on showing us what “der rebbe`s a mentsh” realy is! looking forward to spending be”h a 3rd summer in a row with u and r` nochum; in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh with Moshiach Tzidkeinu.
Please read the story “Grandpa’s Bar Mitzvah” at Chabad.org
this is amazing putting on Tefillin 4 the 1st time in 75 years. We should be getting tons of comments on this 1. This is really the Rebbes inyanim more than Yossi Hackner claiming being broke.
Always making us proud!!