Having reached the age of 112, Yisrael Kristal, a Holocaust survivor living in Haifa, has become a celebrity in spite of himself, as the oldest man in the world. Yasutaro Koide from Japan, who held this title until last week, died two months before his 113th birthday and now Kristal is the candidate for this status. The press from all over the world is standing on line to interview this centenarian.
But fame has not gone to his head. "I have nothing to do with this all," he explains to one and all seeking the elixir of longevity. "Only the Creator determines who shall live and for how long."
Mrs. Shulamit Kuperstock, his 64-year-old daughter who lives on a nearby street in Haifa, serves as his erstwhile press agent since the grandson, Oran, who was interviewed to begin with, could not stand the constant pressure of requests. She says, "They don't stop calling. All the different stations keep calling; everyone is curious and even the mayor of Haifa asked to come and visit. I turned him down. Where was everyone until now? Was he only born yesterday? They are looking to share the limelight for themselves but I don't want to disturb my father. I know that if I agree to one, a hundred will follow. I decided that it was not worth it. He is liable to get overexcited!"
One small bureaucratic roadblock might possibly ruin the conferring of the said title. According to the rules of the Guinness record-keepers, one must produce an official document testifying to the date of birth that is dated in the first twenty years of the candidate's life. The earliest document in Kristal's possession testifying to his age is his marriage license issued 87 years ago in Poland when he was twenty-five. Will the official organization honor this and overlook the five year gap? In other words, a mere five years separate him from the official honorary title of being the oldest man alive.
The decision doesn't seem to excite or worry the family. "It's no great deal for me. For me, it's just life. It's my father, a marvelous person and an outstanding human being. He is a true loving father and everything beyond that doesn't matter."
His daughter tells about him. "He has a great sense of humor. He is sharp, with it, and altogether optimistic. When I went to visit him yesterday (last Wednesday), I told him that there would be a write-up about him in the paper since he is apparently the oldest man on earth. He answered me sarcastically in Yiddish, "The joy of my old age..."
He sees nothing extraordinary about his advanced age. "Everything is from Above, from Hashem, and I have nothing to do with it. Hashem wants, He gives."
Shulamit continues, "Emunah is the power of survival. Abba went through many difficult periods in life but emerged with a broad smile. He is an easygoing person and never gets angry, in spite of his hard times. When he was seven, his father was seized and drafted into the Russian army. At the age of nine, his mother passed away. He was an orphan who grew up among relatives. At the age of seventeen, he was already doing hard physical work in the family candy plant, lifting heavy twenty-five kilo sacks of sugar. He continued producing sweets even in the ghetto established in 1940. Four years later, he was shipped off to Auschwitz where he did forced labor.
"He survived the Holocaust, the only one of his family, without wife or children. His two sons died in the ghetto from starvation and disease and he lost his wife in a fire.
"He started life afresh, weighing only thirty-six kilo (77 pounds), and established a new family. He trusts in Hashem Who granted him his years, puts on tefillin every day and keeps confirming that all is from Heaven. He is a very calculated person, swaying neither to one side or the other. He sets limits in every thing.
"For example, he will not eat until he is full. He also eats very slowly and deliberately, perhaps surprising for one who has suffered so much want and hunger. He chews his food patiently and appreciates the value of his food, which is not automatic for most people."
Kuperstock maintains that it was candies which saved her father's life. "He manufactured all kinds of sweets and was a certified expert, a master at the craft. He had a candy factory in the town of Czernov near the Russian border. When the Germans discovered it, they became his steady customers. He supplied them with candies, chocolate and sweet drinks and they protected and patronized him because they needed him. That's what kept him in the ghetto until shortly before its liquidation, in August 1944, when he was sent off to Auschwitz with his wife.
"When he came to Eretz Yisrael with his second wife and son, he reestablished his candy factory in Haifa. That's my father, undaunted, rolling with the punches and rising back to his feet, time and again."
Kristal, born in 1903 in Czernov, Poland, began his education at three, in a cheder. By four he was already learning Chumash and at six, Mishnayos. His father did not suffice with this formal education but would waken him at five in order to learn with him. Yisrael did not protest because whatever Tatte says is law and one doesn't say `No' to him.
