On the Sabbath of Parshat Lech Lecha, in which the Torah reading relates G-d's commandment for Abraham to trek from Ur Kasdim to the land of Canaan, an 88 year-old survivor of the 60-mile Bataan Death March was finally given his Bar Mitzvah celebration. It was this past Sabbath, November 9.
Dr. Lester Tenney, Commander of the American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor (ADBC), was called to the Torah in the Ohev Shalom Synagogue during a trip to Washington, DC – Jewish men are generally called up to the Torah during bar mitzvah ceremonies at the age of 13.
Tenney, who was enlisted in the Illinois National Guard at the age of 20, survived 3-1/2 years as a prisoner of war (P.O.W.) and slave laborer, and survived the Japanese war crime known as the Bataan Death March – almost one-third of 75,000 American and Filipino World War II P.O.W.s died or were killed during a 12-day, 60-mile mandatory march in the Philippines following the three-month battle for that country called the Battle of Bataan.
Now a Professor Emeritus of Finance and Insurance at Arizona State University, Tenney told his story to Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld of Ohev Shalom in September, during a visit to the nation's capital to place a wreath at the Navy Memorial. Rabbi Herzfeld suggested a bar mitzvah to Tenney, telling the San Diego Union-Tribune that he wanted to "pay back this man who had done so much for this country."
Not only was Tenney bar mitzvah'ed during his latest trip to Washington, in which he is scheduled to participate in Veterans Day activities on Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery and lay a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns, but so were his stepson and grandson. Tenney's stepson, Donald Levi, 65, of Arizona and grandson David Levi, 39, of New Jersey were also bar mitzvah'ed on Saturday. 
I never lost my faith in G-d, although I was never religious
Tenney dedicated his bar mitzvah to honor of Veterans Day, telling the Union-Tribune that the ceremony had "deep meaning" for him. "A lot of my friends on the death march never came back," Tenney said. "Those of us who survived all prayed to the same G-d. I never lost my faith in G-d, although I was never religious.”
The ADBC will soon disband, as the number of surviving members dwindles. ADBC members were held in brutal captivity, and provided slave labor for at least 50 private Japanese companies, including Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Kawasaki, Nippon Steel, and Hitachi. Tenney worked 12-hour days in a Mitsui coal mine.
Neither the Japanese government nor the companies that employed P.O.W. slave labor have ever compensated laborers or issued an apology.
Tenney served as a radio operator and later as a tank commander in Company "B" of the 192nd Tank Battalion in the Philippines. His awards include the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, the Combat Infantryman's Badge, three Presidential Unit Citations, and the Prisoner of War Medal. His first-person account of the Bataan Death March, My Hitch In Hell, was published by Potomac Books in 1995.