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Running Toward the Fire
The first person murdered that morning was American Israeli entrepreneur Daniel Lewin. When the hijackers moved toward the cockpit of American Airlines flight 11, Lewin, 31, acted to stop them with the fearless resolve of an elite commando, who he had once been. According to phone call records from flight attendants, a hijacker stabbed him from behind. Less than half an hour later, the terrorists flew the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Abe Zelmanowitz took a different kind of stand in the North Tower. An Orthodox Jewish computer programmer, he worked beside Ed Beyea, a quadriplegic colleague who could not make it down the stairs. As the tower filled with smoke, Zelmanowitz told Beyea’s nurse to save herself while remaining, with quiet courage, by his side. Both men and a firefighter died together while descending the stairs. Three days later, at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance, President George W. Bush praised the “national character” in “one man, who could have saved himself, stayed until the end at the side of his quadriplegic friend.”
Firefighter David Weiss worked in Rescue 1, a special operations command unit. Years earlier, while off duty, he jumped into the East River after watching a car plunge into the water. On Sep. 11, the 14-year FDNY veteran and 41-year-old father of two young children reached the 30th floor of the North Tower when the order came to evacuate. Shell Kaylie, who raised Weiss, described his final act of courage: “He got a ‘Mayday’ to evacuate the building. David said, ‘No.’ There were people on the 50th floor who needed his help. They never found him. No helmet, no boots, nothing.”
Lewin, Zelmanowitz and Weiss were not exceptions to the American story that day. In total, 2,977 people were killed that day, with many more dying of injuries and related illnesses in the aftermath of the attack. Americans of every background were heroes who showed that same courage – many running toward the Twin Towers that were engulfed in flames, including 343 firefighters and paramedics who gave their lives to rescue others.
Remembrance and Renewal
A nation that forgets 9/11 forgets the people who fought the hijackers, stayed beside the helpless and ran toward the fire. Judaism emphasizes remembrance – zachor. To remember is a form of moral courage – it refuses the comfortable silence that lets lies take hold.
Remembrance in the Jewish tradition is a powerful call to action. The Torah instructs Jews to “remember the days of old” (Deuteronomy 32:7) and pass down faith, tradition and memory from generation to generation – l’dor v’dor. It requires recalling history, learning from it and letting it shape life today.
On Rosh Hashana, even as Jews mark their own beginning, they pray for all of humanity. The holiday is a celebration that welcomes the year ahead marked with the blowing of the shofar – a ram’s horn – recalling the history of the Jewish people even as the prayers look toward a better year to come. This year, the Jewish people welcome the year 5787 – still here, still proud.
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