DELRAY BEACH, Fla. — Harold Terens fought in World War II. He’s lived almost 102 years, celebrating his birthday a couple weeks early with family and friends in Florida. But he has something more to look forward to.
His bar mitzvah.
Terens said at his birthday celebration Saturday that his brother got the traditional Jewish ceremony marking the beginning of adulthood when they were kids living in New York, but he did not.
“My mother came from Poland. My father came from Russia. And my mother was a religious Jew. And my father was anti-religious. So they had two sons. And one son, they compromised. One son got bar mitzvahed, the other son didn’t,” he said.
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.