Yisrael Kristal, who survived the Holocaust and the Auschwitz concentration camp, is now the oldest living man in the world at 112. (Illustrative.) Photo: Yad Vashem via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Following the death of 112-year-old Japanese man Yasutaro Koide, the designation of being the world’s oldest man likely belongs to Israeli Holocaust survivor Yisrael Kristal, who is also 112. Kristal received the title from the U.S.-based Gerontology Research Group, pending the validation of its finding via official documentation.

In 1903, Kristal was born to a religiously observant Jewish family in a region that is today part of Poland. His lost his wife and two children during the Holocaust. After surviving the Auschwitz death camp and other concentration camps, he remarried, made aliyah, and had more children.

“The Holocaust did not affect his beliefs,” Kristal’s daughter, Shula Kuperstoch, told the Jerusalem Post. “He believes he was saved because that’s what God wanted. He is not an angry person…he believes everything has a reason in the world. My father is someone who is always happy. He is optimistic, wise, and he values what he has.”

“His attitude to life is everything in moderation,” she added. “He eats and sleeps moderately, and says that a person should always be in control of their own life and not have their life control them, as far as this is possible.”