Yisrael Kristal

Holocaust survivor, oldest living man

Yisrael Kristal (born Izrael Icek Kryształ; Hebrew: ישראל קרישטל; 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
Yisrael Kristal in September 2016
Born
Izrael Icek Kryształ

(1903-09-15)September 15, 1903
Died(2017-08-11)August 11, 2017
(aged 113 years, 330 days)
NationalityIsraeli
Known forOldest living man
(January 18, 2016 – August 11, 2017)[1]
Oldest survivor of the Holocaust
Spouses
  • Chaje Feige Frucht (married 1928, 2 children) until her death in the Holocaust
  • Batsheva (married 1947, 2 children)

Biography

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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]

References

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  1. 1.0 1.1 "Table M - World's Oldest Men (WOM) Titleholders Since 1973". Revision #8. Gerontology Research Group. 10 April 2018. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 8 May 2022.
  2. "World's oldest man, Yisrael Kristal, 113, to hold bar mitzvah". BBC. 15 September 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  3. Menachem Rephun (27 September 2016). "Auschwitz Survivor Yisrael Kristal Celebrates Bar-Mitzvah At 113". JP Updates. Archived from the original on 28 September 2016. Retrieved 28 September 2016.
  4. World’s oldest man marks bar mitzvah, 100 years late
  5. "World's oldest man, an Israeli Holocaust survivor, dies at 113". Times of Israel. 11 August 2017.
  6. "C2. Knesset Deputy Speaker Danny Danon, "Making the Land of Israel Whole," New York Times, 18 May 2011". Journal of Palestine Studies. 41 (1): 207–209. 2011-11-01. doi:10.1525/jps.2011.xli.1.207. ISSN 0377-919X.
Records
Preceded by
Yasutaro Koide
World's oldest living man
January 19, 2016 - August 11, 2017
Succeeded by
Francisco Núñez Olivera