DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Harold Terens is a World War II veteran nearing 102 years of age. He recently celebrated his birthday a few weeks early with loved ones in Florida, but there’s still something special planned for him.
His bar mitzvah.
During the birthday festivities on Saturday, Terens shared that when he and his brother were growing up in New York, his brother had the traditional Jewish ceremony signifying the transition to adulthood, but he did not.
“My mother was from Poland and was a devout Jew, while my father, from Russia, was not religious. They had two sons and made a compromise; my brother had a bar mitzvah, but I did not,” he explained.
Early next year, Terens said he will finally enjoy that ceremony. At the Pentagon outside Washington, no less. Terens said that came about when he was talking with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on a TV panel and a rabbi overheard the conversation.
“I mentioned that I would like to be bar mitzvahed at 103 and he’s the rabbi of the Pentagon so that’s my next bucket list. I am going to be bar mitzvahed in the Pentagon,” Terens said.
Terens turns 102 on Aug. 6. So Saturday’s party was a little early.
On D-Day — June 6, 1944 — Terens helped repair planes returning from France so they could rejoin the battle. He said half his company’s pilots died that day. Terens went to France 12 days later, helping transport freshly captured Germans and just-freed American POWs back to England.
Terens was honored in June 2024 by the French as part of the 80th anniversary celebration of their country’s liberation from the Nazis. But that isn’t all that happened on those Normandy beaches.
He married Jeanne Swerlin, now 97.
“I thought my wedding in Normandy last year was the highlight of my life. Number one of all the moments of my life. You know, that’s the saying, that life is not measured by how many breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away,” Terens said.
He survived World War ll, was involved in a secret mission in Iran, another time barely escaping a German rocket after leaving a London pub just before it was destroyed.
“My life has been one huge fairy tale, especially with this new wife that I have. Who I love deeply and who I am going to spend the rest of my life till death do us part, as the mayor had us say in Normandy,” Terens said.
After the German surrender in 1945, Terens helped transport freed Allied prisoners to England before he shipped back to the U.S. a month later.
He married his wife Thelma in 1948 and they had two daughters and a son. He became a U.S. vice president for a British conglomerate. They moved from New York to Florida in 2006 after Thelma retired as a French teacher; she died in 2018 after 70 years of marriage. He has eight grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Terens gets asked a lot about his secret to longevity.
“I think if you can learn how to minimize stress, you’ll go a long way. You’ll add at least 10 years to your life. So that is number one. And 90% is luck,” he said.
