82-year-old man celebrates his Bar Mitzvah

Bar Mitzvah

An 82-year-old Holocaust survivor who now resides in Florida held his Bar Mitzvah over the weekend.

Bar Mitzvah is a coming of age ritual traditionally extended to Jewish boys as they reach the age of 13.

Sol Laufer, however, missed his Bar Mitzvah 70 years ago since the Nazis placed him and his family into a Jewish ghetto during World War II. All of Laufer's family died in the Holocaust.

"I am doing this to proclaim to the Nazis that they did not succeed," 82-year-old Sol Laufer told ABC 7. "Here I am, after all of that. I am healthy, I have a nice family, and I am having a Bar Mitzvah."

Witnessed by his wife, three children, and six grand children, Laufer's Bar Mitzvah ceremony was reportedly held at the Chabad of Sarasota Saturday.