Yisrael Kristal
Yisrael Kristal (born Izrael Icek Kryształ; Hebrew: ישראל קרישטל; Yiddish: ישרא ל קריסטאל; Polish: Izrael Kryształowy September 15, 1903 – August 11, 2017) was a Polish-born Israeli supercentenarian, recognized as the oldest living man and the oldest survivor of the Holocaust in the world until his death on August 11, 2017 at age 113 years, 330 days.[1]
Yisrael Kristal | |
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 Yisrael Kristal in September 2016 | |
| Born | Izrael Icek Kryształ September 15, 1903 |
| Died | August 11, 2017 (aged 113 years, 330 days) |
| Nationality | Israeli |
| Known for | Oldest living man (January 18, 2016 – August 11, 2017)[1] Oldest survivor of the Holocaust |
| Spouse(s) |
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Biography
Kristal was born to Jewish parents in Poland, then part of the Russian Empire. He experienced World War I as a child, and World War II as an adult. After surviving the Holocaust, he immigrated to Israel.
During World War II he was confined by the Nazi regime to a Jewish ghetto. His children died in the ghetto, but he and his wife were deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Kristal survived the Holocaust, but his wife did not. He remarried shortly after the War and, in 1950, emigrated to Haifa, Israel, with his second wife Batsheva, also a survivor of the Holocaust, and their infant child, and lived in Haifa until his death at age 113 years, 330 days.
Kristal celebrated his bar mitzvah in September 2016 at age 113[2][3] after being unable to do so at age 13 due to World War I.[4] That year, Kristal, who was the oldest survivor of the Holocaust, also became the world's oldest living man and last living man born in 1903, after Japaneseman Yasutaro Koide's death on January 18 (Koide died January 19 Japanese time).
Kristal died at his home in Haifa on August 11, 2017,[5] and was succeeded as the world's oldest living man by Spaniard Francisco Núñez Olivera (who, however, was not verified until his death on January 29, 2018 at age 113 years, 47 days). Kristal was at the time of his death the 8th oldest man in human history.[6]
Yisrael Kristal Media
Yisrael Kristal in Poland 1931, aged 28
Kristal's name and date of birth on a 1918 record
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Table M - World's Oldest Men (WOM) Titleholders Since 1973 (10 April 2018)Gerontology Research Group. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
- ↑ World's oldest man, Yisrael Kristal, 113, to hold bar mitzvah (15 September 2016)BBC. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
- ↑ Menachem Rephun. Auschwitz Survivor Yisrael Kristal Celebrates Bar-Mitzvah At 113 (27 September 2016)JP Updates. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
- ↑ World’s oldest man marks bar mitzvah, 100 years late
- ↑ "World's oldest man, an Israeli Holocaust survivor, dies at 113". Times of Israel. 11 August 2017. http://www.timesofisrael.com/worlds-oldest-man-an-israeli-holocaust-survivor-dies-at-113/.
- ↑ C2. Knesset Deputy Speaker Danny Danon, "Making the Land of Israel Whole," New York Times, 18 May 2011. Journal of Palestine Studies 41 (1) (2011-11-01). p. 207–209. doi:10.1525/jps.2011.xli.1.207.
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Yasutaro Koide |
World's oldest living man January 19, 2016 - August 11, 2017 |
Succeeded by Francisco Núñez Olivera |