Where Were You On 9/11?

I was in YOEC, the cooks had the radio on at breakfast out on the counter.

Most of us did not understand the enormity of it, ( I think mostly because reports kept on coming in and it seemed completely unreal)

@Shmaya:
Right, though most of this happened before class or during chassidus before davening and breakfast.

I remember Rabbi Citron asking if I had a radio or TV in my room while he was asking for updates.

The rumors coming in were pretty crazy though, they had no idea how many planes had been hijacked at the time.

A group of us (Hatzoloh members) were across the street when the building(s) collapsed on us. I still don’t believe it actually happened or that we got out alive. See video on Yeshivah World. Has some of us that were there. I still shudder.

I was by the door of the tower as a emt when it collapsed

At ground zero with Hatzolah.

@Mutty:
@Dans Fan:
@Elliott:
Crazy.
I’ve heard Hatzola was among the first there. Have any stories to share from the day?

I was 8 years old I was in bed my mom woke me and told me the news , when I went to cheider and told my rabbi what happened he told me that I have no idea what I am talking about .

I was just a few miles away in yeshiva, watched everything from the rooftop of our building, saw people just jumping from high story’s, that was more than enough to see , forget about the rest…!

Oy. Just reading your account stirrs my feeling for that terrible day. The more I think about it, the angrier and saddened I become. I’m not aloof to it, but I try not to dwell too much on it. I was actually approximately 1 mile away across the river with a direct line of sight. I remember the sirens all morning long. I remember hearing the holocaust survivors saying that smell in the air was of burning flesh. I remember the ash in the air for days afterwards. I remember thinking the world will never be the same again.

May the families have comfort on this anniversary of 9/11.

May we use all the money we save from being part of your site, Dan, to defeat the arabs and greet the Messiah, AMEN.

At the US Consulate General Karachi, Pakistan serving as a US Marine.

I was in my Chider which is on Kent Ave in Williamsburg I was 10 years old sitting in the Lunch Room which is in front of the building walk in when the Bus driver runs in that a plane crashed in the first building in WTC we ran out in front which was open to Manhatten and multiple included me saw the second plane crashes, we were next to the Willamsburg fire station where we saw the UTA (Satmar) buses took the fire fighters to the WTC

I was in school. While everyone was glued to the TVs, my rebbe, chavrusa, and I decided to stay in the beis medrash and learn. When we left, F15s were flying overhead. Three days later, on Friday, I did shmirah for the bodies they were bringing to the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office. Tents, exam tables, and pallets of latex gloves were set up outside on 30th Street east of 1st Ave. Secret Service kept giving me a hard time (understandably) about what I was doing there. One of them, when he was satisfied after checking my credentials, let me go with a meaningful “Zei Gezunt!” It was a much-needed lighthearted moment in the middle of a day of seeing (and smelling) the human loss with my own eyes. To go from witnessing such a scale of death firsthand to singing Kabbalas Shabbos that night broke me. But life went on, at least for me. I’m grateful for all I have and all I love.

I was sitting in my office in Boro park and I was waiting to hear if they will be able to find my 2 close friends who were Niftar in the attack.

There are a lot. When I pulled the ambulance up to the trade center I was told to pull in right opposite the building. Then the police came over and told me to move further into Liberty street because they had enough coverage for the area we were in. I moved. The others (FDNY)that were where we were originally never made it. There’s plenty more but let others share their memories.

@Oscar:
Oy.

@Ryan:
Gd bless you for your service.

@Sola:
I gave my kids an extra hug today. They won’t know what happened on 9/11 for several years, but they’ll always know they’re loved
Reading the stories of those who said goodbye for the final time or didn’t get to say goodbye is heart-wrenching.

@Booky:
🙁

@Mutty:
Wow.

I was on the D train from Sheepshead Bay to Manhattan (before the D started going through Boro Park). We were going over the Manhattan Bridge and could see the smoke and flames coming out of one of the towers. We didn’t know it was anything more than a crash, but by the time we got to Rockefeller Center the second plane had hit. A few hours later I walked home from midtown over the Brooklyn Bridge. Smoke was intense and there a somber mood wherever we went. People were handing out water to walkers, which was the first indicator of a nation coming together.

I was driving to work, I worked for a software company in California. I heard on the radio what was happening but didn’t believe it. I thought the DJ’s were doing a sort of war of the worlds broadcast since they did pranks online. I walked into my office complaining about what I heard because I knew it wasn’t allowed… That’s when I found out it happened. I cried. I couldn’t believe what was happening. My dad’s family lives in NY. My cousin works in a hospitalin Manhatten. I’ve been to NYC at least a dozen times since from 2002 to last month and I stop by each time. I travelled a lot for work. I flew extensively and I remember boarding a flight a few days later. There were 3 passengers on the plane. Tensions were high. The flight attendants were very nice. I could never truly imagine what others felt that day. Those who lost their lives, an entire city coming together to help, it’s sometimes hard to see the good through all the evil.

At the time, I was learning in a small Kolel, maybe 10 guys, on 18th Ave. In Boro Park. On the way there from home that morning, someone who was headed for the D train asked me if the train was running, since he heard about a bomb in Manhattan. I said I didn’t know of anything and continued on my way.

Not long after I arrived, one of the other members came running in saying a plane crashed into the tower. We all thought he was pulling our leg, but he insisted it was no hoax. One of us had come in a car, so we all ran out and piled into the car (8 guys in a sedan) to hear the radio. We noticed the air was full of flying bits, which turned out to be soot from the fire.
We were just sitting there, stunned, as the reporters were describing what happened, and listened in shock as the towers came down. It took a long time for us to digest that what we were hearing wasn’t a new version of Orson Wells’s “War of the Worlds” radio hoax…

Midtown office meeting. Responded with other H members. Parked on the side of 7 world trade next to one of the airplane engines. Lost my car but BH am here to talk about it.

9/11 Hatzolah Radio Audio

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwANS-vgUnU

I was in a meeting with a window facing the WTC but we noticed the fire from the first plane crash on the TV in the room
We all looked out the window thinking what a terrible accident then we saw the second planew hit alarms went off in our buildings and everyone got out
I being an emt for my town went to help in any way I can understand fortunately their was not much to do except help the police and firemen that got hurt I stayed till erez shabbos help anyway I could I could
I still can’t bring myself to go back there
Their nasamas should have an alyih

I was in 3rd grade, class had just started and I remember on of the rabbim from the younger classes was a Hatzolah member and came running into our class saying a helicopter hit the empire state building! All the rabbim and the princable we’re talking in the hallway listing to the Hatzolah scanner. Reports were so unclear in the beginning but as a young child it’s a day I will never forget.

@Never Forget: That audio retraumatizes me every time. Better not to post it.

I was woken up at 5 am by my TV at home. My parents got a call from my grandmother who lives in NY time zone so they switched on the TV at about 5:45 am which woke me up and I remember seeing the second plane crash into the south tower live on TV

Dan, both Aish.com and Chabad.org have some beautiful articles. Aish has one about the Hatzalah first responders.
I also found one on dpreview, believe our not. I had googled how many Orthodox Jews died on 9/11, and it came up with a list of names and bios of 76 victims. I was trying to find out if the story I once heard was true or not. I had heard that a frum person called their Rav and asked if they could jump out of the window, and was told no. The Rav stayed on the phone and said viduey with her. It seems far fetched to me … Anyone know if this is true?
I feel we owe it to their memories to read their stories and find out who they were, not just a bunch of names or even nameless people, just a bunch of numbers.
It really felt like Moshiach was coming that day.
I was home, but my kids were in school. I wanted them home near me. I pulled them out school, to have them home. My husband came home from work as well. We are in VA. It was a very scary and confusing time for everyone everywhere.
Hashem should send Moshiach, wipe away all the tears forever.

I’ll never forget the Rosh in YOEC gave a massive derasha that evening screaming, “Der velt treiselt zich!” Anyone remember that?

In rabbi Weimers 4th grade class in HAC.

@Leah in VA:
There is a recording of that call.. I have heard it he was on the phone with his wife too!
So sad…

In Yeshiva Bell Harbor across the water, saw it clearly on fire and then no more.

Was there when the plane crashed a month later a block away from Yeshiva.

I was on my way to a medical seminar walking north on Park Avenue and 39th Street around 8:45am. I heard a loud roaring sound and looked up to see a large passenger airplane flying very low. I watched the plane go by for a few seconds and then lost sight of it behind buildings. I remember calling my wife on my cell phone and commenting how I just saw a plane flying very low and how I was concerned that it could hit a building. No one else walking at that time seemed to be bothered by what I had just seen and I, therefore, continued walking north towards my destination of 43rd street. A few minutes later, as I approached 42nd st I noticed a group of people standing on the corner looking and pointing south.. I turned and looked back and saw smoke coming out the side of one of the world trade center towers. I quickly walked into my seminar where people were watching news reports on TV with the reporters saying a ” small plane” had crashed into the WTC – I recall screaming back at the TV screen saying “..that was no small plane, it was a large passenger plane”
Dr D

In Yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel, I remember coming back from second seder and hearing about it.

I was sitting in our first period of class at Ezra academy, and yeshiva based in forest hills queens, when the rabbi told us to all hush down… The head of the school came on the loud speaker and made the announcement that there was a terror attack on the twin towers and to report to the assembled room to watch the news. At that time we didn’t realize the severity of the attack. Two days later when school re-opened we learnt that a fellow schoolmate had lost her father in the attack. The day will be forever ingrained in my mind, and my heart goes out to the first responders and people who losts loved ones.

We will never forget.

I was in preschool. A local dentist came into the room after dropping off his kids and told the teacher what happened. She just gasped. We were sent home early that day, and my father who was working nearby was talking about it nonstop.

We have still not gotten an explanation for what caused building 7 to collapse. It’s also horrible the way they lied to first responders and volunteers in the days and weeks after 9/11, saying that there was no danger in helping out with the recovery at ground zero. Many are suffering today because of this.

That morning was my wife’s first ultrasound with our first baby.
I worked in midtown but because of the appointment didn’t go to work. (Usually took the 2,3 or 4 lines to the city from CH).
woke up late (about 8:30) had a TV with an antenna so no channels were working then one was (most channels had their broadcasting antennas on the WTC and one that was working apparently had it on the Empire State Building). And as we were watching the burning building, the 2nd plane came hitting the second tower.
As we were going to Maimonides hospital in Boro Park, My black Kippah became grey and my cloths were becoming grey from the debris that was dropping from the sky as light snow flurries.
I will never forget that moment.
At the hospital we were waiting with more future parents for the ultra sounds, while in the waiting room with the news on, reporters saying there were 6,7 or 8 planes that have crashed.
Doctors and nurses running in and out of the hospital, everybody there was in shock.
Till this day it’s hard to believe.

@Thinker: Maybe it was all the gasoline that was stored in the OEM generators that caused an uncontrollable fire, which i witnessed with my own eyes. The building was not structhrally sound from that fire and collapsed. I was there the night of 9/11 as well and saw them fighting the fire. Truthers are just so pathetic.

I was in yeshiva ketana in France. 17 years old and it was 3.30pm when someone came and told us that something big happened in the US at first we didn’t believe him then after the shiur we went outside to a tv store and saw hundred of people outside The store watching the news !

I was in YU at the time and remember seeing the second tower go down from the top of belfer hall.
The thing I remember most about the days following 9/11 was how united the country was and how everyone in NYC greatest each other and hugged the fireman and policeman in the streets.

It is amazing how divided the country is today 15 years later, i guess we can thank the greater divider Barak Obama for that and his surrogates (looking at you Bill DiBlaso)

In 8th grade in Brooklyn, seeing the flames and smoke from the window. Trying to reach my mother who worked in the South Tower to make sure she was okay.

I had just left a bris in Monsey and was returning to NJ. About 9:30 AM I heard news about an attack on the World Trade Center, and thought it was discussing the attack in 1993. As the news report continued, I started to understand what had happened.
The morning was super clear and from a high spot on the the Garden State Parkway around Mile 165 I could see the two towers with the smoke blowing southward. By the time I got to the Jersey Shore, the smoke from the towers was in the air down there. I knew that the world would never be the same.

My husband had surgery that week and so we were both home. Otherwise we would have both been at work. As we watched on the TV just after the first plane, we saw the second one hit. It was all so surreal.

Our son had just finished U.S. Army boot camp, and has now done 4 tours away including Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. I’m tired of him going over there and not getting support or thanks from people in this country.

As someone else mentioned, I find it shocking only 15 years later how divided this country has become. People protesting the American flag even.

It is all for a reason and only hastening the coming of Mashiach. IY”H very soon in our days.

@LR:
Thank you and your son for keeping this country safe and Gd bless. It is a shame that the flag and anthem need to become political pawns.

And Amen to Moshiach now. There has been more than enough suffering.

Lost a family relative
Still hurts me the we don’t know how he passed away! So sad

I was giving Halacha Shiur After Shacharis in Skokie Yeshiva and discussing with the Talmidim the idea of not watching Television until after Yom Kippur. After they were dismissed to breakfast one boy returns and asks “Rebbie, what if an airplane would slam into the World Trade Center would it be okay to watch the television new coverage?” I responded “I would think so but perhaps think of a more realistic Shailoh.” He responded “Well it just happened and everyone is watching it on a television that is set up in the cafeteria.” By the time I got downstairs to the cafeteria all the Talmidei Hayeshiva were heading to the Beis Midrash to say Tehilim B’Tzubur. The tears were flowing and the rest became history. Hashem Yishmor and may he send Nechama to all and Yeshuos B’karov.

I was in yeshiva, sleeping, when the janitor comes walking in screaming that I should wake up because one tower was hit. I told him to stop drinking [he was usually drunk] and went back to sleep. He came back when the second plane hit and this time I decided that he MIGHT be saying the truth. So I woke up and spent the morning in yeshiva, watching parents picking up their kids to whisk them away to “safer” places, etc.

@Anonymous: there are no words. Ad mosai. I was really hoping it was an urban legend.

Working in Queens, my office directly faced WTC. I was sending an IM to a friend wishing him a happy birthday, when two coworkers whose desks didn’t face the window came running over. I stopped what I was doing, and turned to face the window just as the second plane hit. But absolutely the worst site I saw that day was each of the towers collapsing. For maybe a year, everytime a plane was flying low (no doubt landing at LGA), we were sure it was heading for our building.

I was just 16 years old, a yeshiva student living the yeshiva life.

That year 9/11 was a week before Rosh Hashana. I (along with my friend Yosef Muchnik), was scheduled to fly to Los Angles to assist Chabad of Agoura Hills with their High Holidays programming.

My American Airlines flight to Los Angles, with a connection somewhere in flyover country, was scheduled for departure the evening of September 10. However, N.Y. experienced a torrential thunder and lightening storm that evening; our plane was unable to take off, and we were stuck on the tarmac for many hours.

Of course, by the time we finally did take off, we had missed our connecting flight. So instead of taking that route, the airline announced that we’d be flying to Houston, where we would be put up at hotels overnight, and would then fly to Los Angles the next morning.

The next morning, a terribly hot, humid Houston morning, we boarded our flight for a 7:30 departure to Los Angeles.

About an hour into the flight–I remember, I was davening shachris–the pilot paused the movie with an announcement (quotes are imprecise of course–this was so many years ago): “We just received news that there was some kind of incident at the World Trade Center. We’ll keep you posted with developments.”

Okay, an accident. We didn’t think about it for too long, and I continued davening shachris while the movie resumed. A short while later, the pilot again: “Passengers, I have disturbing news: a plane just crashed into the other tower. And the accident we announced earlier–that was also a plane crash. This does not look accidental.”

This time the movie didn’t restart. Everyone started murmuring, very concerned and disappointed, but not particularly threatened or afraid. Until this announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen: there have been several hijackings. We’ll keep you posted.” And then this: “Another hijacking just confirmed.” “Another one.” And then this: “A plane just crashed.” And then this: “It seems like 5 planes have been hijacked.” Then: “The number has increased to 10 planes.” (At that point, any plane that couldn’t be immediately reached was assumed hijacked. For some bizarre reason, our pilot thought it was smart to share that with us.)

No one said a word. All hands were clutching their armrests, knuckles white and trembling. Because the pilot kept updating us, and with each update the news got progressively worse, it seemed to us all that most likely every single plane in the sky at that moment was under attack and was doomed. I wasn’t the only passenger on that Houston –> L.A. flight who assumed that it was probably a few minutes until someone jumped up and screamed “alla hu akbar” and killed us all. It was terrifying.

Our pilot, God bless his heart, then confirmed we were going to die: “Ladies and gentlemen, we were just ordered to land. If we don’t land within the next 20(ish) minutes, we will be escorted by army jets. And we will be deemed a potential threat and will be dealt with as such.” If Allah wouldn’t kill us, Uncle Sam would.

Within a few minutes the pilot confirmed that we had received permission to land in El Paso, Texas. At that point, cell phones came out as people tried calling their loved ones. I couldn’t reach home. I tried again and again but nothing went through. The passengers who did manage to get through shared updates: Pentagon, Twin Towers, Pennsylvania, terror, horror, death, destruction, terrorism. Many passengers were crying.

We landed and joined a massive line of planes, all ordered out of the sky. We didn’t taxi to the hub, as the traffic was intense, with dozens of planes ahead of us. We just got off the plane right where it landed and hiked down the runway. When we got to the terminal, all the screens were channeled to the attack. Again and again we watched the planes–suddenly transformed into terrifying missiles–fly right through the towers. There was no resistance, no drama. It was all instant. It was surreal: no nightmare or horror story could conceive of the terrible efficiency–the speed and smoothness of the attack. Bam, bam, bam, and the world changed forever.

Strangers were hugging and crying on each other’s shoulders. The airport shops set up ice boxes with free drinks for all the stranded, bewildered and terrified passengers.

Within a few minutes, we spotted Rabbi Greenberg, the Rebbe’s shliach to El Paso. He heard planes were landing, and being the Rebbe’s soldier that he is, he sped to the airport to see how he could help. When we realized the planes wouldn’t be heading back into the sky, he offered to take us home and give us his guest room.

That night the whole country was terrified. On this suburban, quite El Paso block there were bomb scares at the corner gas station and at the 7-11 on the other corner. Everyone felt vulnerable and was on high alert.

The next morning we took a Mexican bus to L.A. But that’s another story unto itself.

On the West Coast, far as it was from Ground Zero, things were different. At one point, I had to go to the shul late at night. When I pulled into the lot, a police screeched in behind me, jumped out with his gun drawn, and asked for ID. He was just making sure I wasn’t visiting to kill Jews.

After the holidays, I flew back to New York. Already from the plane window the smoke was visible, still billowing out of the gravesite of thousands.

When I disembarked, I immediately smelled the smoke, the carnage and the terror. My older brother, Elie Poltorak, picked me up from the airport. The FDR completely was empty — besides for military Humvees and soldiers armed to the teeth with combat weapons, that is.

This was New York? Manhattan? It couldn’t be. As we headed further south, the smoke got darker and the smell stronger. I felt then that something had changed forever.

The smoke told me that there was no turning back and that a new era had dawned; an era of terror was drawn out of the sky and dragged into our world by passenger airplanes controlled by men with mace, box cutters and very dark hearts.

#neverforget #alwaysremember

I was at my desk 3 blocks from the Trade Center when I heard the first plane hit. It sounded like a dumpster being dropped carelessly. Others who has windows facing the WTC sa w the smoke and paper flying all over. We saw people running for their lives towards the East River covered with ash. I was looking out the window when I saw the 2nd plance crash. We stayed in the office until after 11am and I walked over the Brooklyn bridge and eventually got home.

I was in Williamsburg at SATMAR CHEDER, on the 6th floor, we had a massive view, we saw the 2nd plane crashing in and saw both buildings collapsing .

@Dovid: Thank you Dovid. I shared your retelling on my Facebook wall. I hope you don’t mind.

My then-4-year-old daughter was having her tonsils removed that morning, and I was rushing around getting my older kids off to school and the baby to the babysitter’s. My husband got a frantic call from his sister in Florida that “the White House has been bombed!” I barely registered this bulletin, let alone pondered whether it was true or an exaggeration, since I needed to get to the hospital ASAP. I sat with my daughter during pre-op, wondering vaguely whether there was any sort of emergency; when she was taken back to the OR, I went to the waiting room to say Tehillim. That was when I saw the images of the planes crashing on the waiting room TV. I was stunned. I couldn’t concentrate. I ran around frantically trying to find a newspaper so I could find out what happened and get back to davening! Somehow, one of the Atlanta newspapers had been able to print a front cover that read, in large, menacing letters, “OUTRAGE!” Of course, it had only the barest details of what had occurred in the previous two hours. I didn’t get more information until much later that afternoon, and was in my car on the way home from the hospital when I heard the collapse of Tower 7 on the radio. What an awful, horrendous tragedy. May Hashem avenge the deaths of all the innocents who met their untimely ends on that day and since then.

Thank you for encouraging us to memorialize the Kedoshim and share our thoughts on this day, Dan.

As a hatzolah member there is a famous internal story going around us members….during mincha outside on the day of the attack, one of the fire chiefs asked a coordinator , so how many guys did you lose or are missing, he said none. The fire chief paused for a moment and uttered… You do have a God

I was in yeshiva davening shacharis when my friend, who had spent the better part of davening in the kitchen, came back in and sat down next to me. “[so and so from the kitchen staff] said plane just hit the World Trade Center…a terrorist attack.” I remember not knowing what the WTC was and then I heard murmurings behind me about the Twin Towers and I was just shocked. It was so hard to believe.

It was right in the beginning of Uva L’tzion.

@LR respect and thanks to your son for his service. And to you for being parents who allowed him to serve. There are millions of people who have gratitude and respect for the men and women who have served our great country. Unfortunately the voices of those who don’t understand what an incredible sacrifice a soldier makes to protect each persons life and liberty- including those protesting and burning flags- speak a lot louder than those of us who realize what you do for us. (The fact that these brave soldiers put their lives at risk to protect the liberty of our individual rights- including the right to protest is an irony that is not lost on me!) We we exist. And we are many. May HKBH watch over the brave soldiers of our great nation!

Two more memories. While standing at the ambulance I was watching as people fell or jumped one after another. It was horrible, something I still have nightmares about today. Then the building started to implode. I didn’t have enough time to get into a building so I jumped between the seats in the ambulance and davened. After the building fell down and I was able to open the door, I saw a large beam right next to the ambulance that missed crushing us by an inch. Hashem was definitely watching over us.
Another thing that happened that day with us. At one point we were helping some invalids and pregnant women onto boats, carrying them over the sides, as the boats pulled up wherever they could. An announcement was made that the island (Manhattan) may have an explosion because of all the gas leaks. We were asked to go to Jersey to set up Triage centers where the wounded would be taken. (Unfortunately at ground zero there were very little just wounded people and the triage center wasn’t necessary). Anyway, the Hatzoloh members joined the other people onto this large boat headed to New Jersey. There was a lot of hullaballoo as you can imagine. Suddenly, one frum person yelled out a pasuk from tehillim. A few people repeated it. Then another and another until all of us were yelling out posuk by posuk. The incredible thing was the look on the rest of the people’s faces. They were mesmerized and totally silent in respect. They somehow understood what it was we were doing and respected it. Besides the get togethers in stadiums, for me this was one of the biggest Kiddush Hashem’s I’ve ever experienced. There is a lot more but I’ll just leave you with the above. IYH we should see a complete Yeshuah for all our troubles and ailments and see the coming of Moshiach immediately!

I was on my way to work and saw the UA jet hit. Saw felt and heard the towers fall 🙁

I am lucky though, i was offered a managers position at AX on site at Coopers. If i had taken it I’d be gone.

[9/11, 11:47 AM] MK: Complete List of Jews Who Died in WTC on 9/11 A”H

List of World Trade Center Victims (not including plane crews or passengers)
William F. Abrahamson
Jack Charles Aron
Joshua Aron
John P. Bergin
Alvin Bergsohn
Daniel Bergstein
William Bernstein
Shimmy D. Biegeleisen
Florence G. Cohen
Kevin Sanford Cohen
Margaret Ruth Echtermann
John Ernst Eichler
Eric Adam Eisenberg
Mark Joseph Ellis
Valerie Silver Ellis
Peter Adam Feidelberg
Alan D. Feinberg
Kristen Nicole Fiedel
Samuel Fields
John R. Fischer
Lucy A. Fishman
Brett Owen Freiman
Peter L. Freund
Arlene Eva Fried
Andrew Keith Friedman
Gregg J. Froehner
Steven Elliot Furman
Richard Samuel
Gary Geidel
Julie M. Geis
Steven Paul Geller
Howard G. Gelling
Marina Romanovna Gertsberg
James G. Geyer
Brian Fredric Goldberg
Jeffrey Grant Goldflam
Michelle Goldstein
Monica Goldstein
Steven Goldstein
Michael Edward Gould
Elaine Myra Greenberg
Eileen Marsha Greenstein
Jeffrey A. Hersch
Thomas Hetzel
Marcia Hoffman
Stephen G. Hoffman
Frederick Joseph Hoffmann
Michele L. Hoffmann
Jonathan R. Hohmann
Aaron Horwitz
Thomas Edward Hynes
Walter G. Hynes
Abraham Nethanel Ilowitz
Aaron Jeremy Jacobs
Ariel Louis Jacobs
Jason Kyle Jacobs
Michael Grady Jacobs
Steven A. Jacobson
Albert Gunnia Joseph
Karl Henry Joseph
Stephen Joseph
Jane Josiah
Sheldon Robert Kanter
Deborah H. Kaplan
Alvin Peter Kappelmann, Jr.
Sarah Khan
Howard Barry Kirschbaum
Peter Anton Klein
Alan David Kleinberg
Karen Joyce Klitzman
Ronald Philip Kloepfer
Gary Edward Koecheler
Frank J. Koestner
Amy Hope Lamonsoff
Joseph Gerard Leavey
Neil Joseph Leavy
Leon Lebor
Alan J. Lederman
Stephen Paul Lefkowitz
Edward Joseph Lehman
Eric Andrew Lehrfeld
David Leistman
Matthew Gerard Leonard
Jeff Leveen
John Dennis Levi
Alisha Caren Levin
Neil David Levin
Robert Levine
Robert Michael Levine
Gary Frederick Lutnick
Simon Maddison
Daniel L. Maher
Alfred Russell Maler
Raymond Meisenheimer
Stuart Todd Meltzer
Raymond Joseph Metz III
Jill Ann Metzler
David Robert Meyer
Ronald Keith Milstein
Nancy Morgenstern
Robert B. Nagel
Martin S. Niederer
Alfonse Joseph Niedermeyer
Jeffrey Roger Nussbaum
Michael C. Opperman
Richard Allen Pearlman
Mark Rosen
Brooke David Rosenbaum
Linda Rosenbaum
Sheryl Lynn Rosenbaum
Lloyd Daniel Rosenberg
Mark Louis Rosenberg
Andrew Ira Rosenblum
Joshua M. Rosenblum
Joshua Alan Rosenthal
Richard David Rosenthal
Michael Craig Rothberg
Donna Marie Rothenberg
Ronald J. Ruben
Jude Safi
Wayne John Saloman
Nolbert Salomon
James Kenneth Samuel, Jr.
John Albert Schardt
John G. Scharf
Frederick Claude Scheffold, Jr.
Angela Susan Scheinberg
Scott Mitchell Schertzer
Jon Schlissel
Ian Schneider
Thomas G. Schoales
Frank G. Schott, Jr.
Gerard Patrick Schrang
Jeffrey H. Schreier
Susan Lee Schuler
Edward William Schunk
Mark E. Schurmeier
Clarin Shellie Schwartz
John Burkhart Schwartz
Mark Schwartz
Michael Herman Seaman
Gary Shamay
Kathryn Anne Shatzoff
Mark Shulman
Allan Abraham Shwartzstein
Johanna Sigmund
David Silver
Craig A. Silverstein
Arthur Simon
Kenneth Alan Simon
Michael J. Simon
Paul Joseph Simon
Marianne Teresa Simone
Barry Simowitz
Leonard J. Snyder, Jr.
Naomi Leah Solomon
Eric Thomas Steen
William R. Steiner
Alexander Steinman
Andrew Stern
Edward W. Straub
George J. Strauch, Jr.
Edward T. Strauss
Steven R. Strauss
Dorothy Pearl Temple
Stanley Temple
Gabriela Waisman
Jeffrey P. Walz
Michael T. Weinberg
Steven Weinberg
Scott Jeffrey Weingard
Steven George Weinstein
Simon Weiser
David M. Weiss
David Thomas Weiss
Mary Catherine Wieman
Jeffrey David Wiener
Michael Wittenstein
Ira Zaslow
Kenneth Albert Zelman
Abraham J. Zelmanowitz
Charles A. Zion
Andrew S. Zucker
Igor Zukelma
[9/11, 11:47 AM] MK: List of Victims on American Airlines Flight 11

Anna Allison
Myra Joy Aronson
Robin Lynne Kaplan
Paul J. Friedman
Edmund Glazer
Lisa Reinhart Gordenstein
Daniel M. Lewin
Mildred Naiman
Philip Martin Rosenzweig
Richard Barry Ross
Jessica Leigh Sachs

List of Victims on United Airlines Flight 175

Alona Abraham
Robert G. Leblanc

List of Victims at the Pentagon (Not Including Flight 77)Note: USA – United Stated Army; USN – United States Navy
Ada M. Davis
Gerald P. Fisher
Lt Col Robert J. Hymel, USAF, Retired
CDR Robert A. Schlegel, USN

List of Victims on American Airlines Flight 77
Charles S. Falkenberg
Dana Falkenberg
Zoe Falkenberg
Steven D. Jacoby
Todd H. Reuben

List of Victims on United Airlines Flight 93

Jeremy Glick
Nicole Miller
Mark Rothenberg

i worked on broadway and vesey from 86-88 and the towers were right out my window.
In january of 2001 my wife and i went to windows of the world on motzei shabbos and it was as awesome as always. the city just sparkled below us. on the way out i told one of the waitresses that i hope she appreciates how great it is to work up there.
in august of 2001 we had plans to go to the twin towers with he kids but that was the day of the sabbarros bombing in yerushalayim. i walked with the kids as far as broadway and was so depressed over the news that i just decided to go to chabad there and say tehilim. i bought 2 twin tower tee shirts from a street vendor ( i still have them) and headed back by foot to the lower east side where we were visiting. i said there will be other times to visit the towers as i did not feel right having fun that day.
on 9-11 i was coming back from driving bais yaakov carpool in baltimore.
i must have had a cell phone by then since i recall my wife calling me. she was talking to her sister on the lower east side who could see some of it by standing on grand st and looking straight down east broadway.
when i got home i immediately turned on the TV and put a tape in the vcr to record what was obviously history.( still have it) i remember thinking about the upcoming fundraising dinner for heritage house (meir schuster) that was scheduled to be held in windows on the world and hoping that they would repair the place in time. i could not imagine that it could collapse. i felt the world coming to an end and drove to the bank to withdraw some cash for the upcoming uncertainty. while in the car i heard on the news that it had fallen. i remember thinking that it was so wrong of reporters to report that it had fallen when that could not be true.
i literally could not accept the news. i was certain that hatzala of the lower east side must have been decimated but b”h hatzala received a neis (kimat niglah).
just a sickening day. such amazing evil.

I was on a D train on the way into Manhattan.
(The D at that time was in Flatbush, not Boro Park.
When we got to Church Ave, someone said that a plan hit the WTC.
Our first thought was “wow, horrible accident”.
By the time we got to Atlantic Ave, we heard a second plane had hit. That immediately shifted thoughts to terrorism.
As we exited the tunnels and went over the Manhattan bridge. The entire train rushed to the left windows and stared in horror as we saw the two pillars of smoke billowing from the towers.
The conductor came over the intercom and said somberly “I think we should all say a prayer for those in the buildings”.
Watching the smoke, all I could think was how would firefighters reach people on the top floors? Would they use helicopters? Did they have plans for skyscraper rescues? It never occurred to me that the buildings would come down.
Our train was one of the last ones allowed into Manhattan before the city-wide subway shutdown.
I got off at 34th Street and walked the block to my office in 1 Penn, where my co-workers were glued to radios, internet feeds and one small 13″ TV someone rolled out of a closet.
The towers fell, and we watched in shock.
I remember calling my wife and she had no idea what happened. My oldest was 11 months old and the TV was always on Sesame Street.
Eventually, our management decided that since we were above Penn Station, we were a potential target for more terrorism, so they told us to go home.
I walked downtown to the Williamsburg Bridge, watching as shell-shocked downtowners covered in dust somberly made their way uptown.
Some nice Chassidishe guys gave me a list to the Public School my Mom worked at and she gave me a huge hug, not realizing I was never in any danger. She waited until all the students were on their way home and then drove me home.
I found a charred piece of a law book in the alley behind my apartment building. 🙁
The next week was spent trying to get back to normal, but several bomb scares at 1 Penn made it impossible as we evacuated each time.
It wasn’t until a few days later that I learned that the sister of one of my closest friends has died on that terrible day.
I will never forget.

@EMT Moshe – thank you for posting the names.

I was in Pittsburgh staying at a friend’s house, preparing to move into my new apartment on 9/12. When I awoke, my hosts had the TV on and I could hear the reporting of the planes crashing into the WTC towers. Not long afterward, close to 9:30am, I walked to the post office. Workers had KDKA radio in the back of the station, and you could hear it out front, which was unusual. Reporters were tracking the two planes that we now know crashed — Flight 93 into a field near Pittsburgh, and the other, into the Pentagon. It was a tense time, because we knew about the NYC towers failing by that time, and they follow the other flights but not know where they were going. Flight 93 crashed just after 10am. I was numb.

I couldn’t listen to the news any more. I didn’t watch TV and avoided the nightmare of seeing the planes crash into the Twin Towers. I avoided all media and waited for my movers to come on 9/12 because I couldn’t deal with the carnage.

I’ve been to the Flight 93 memorial and it is a solemn and beautiful site. I did not know that the plane was flying upside down and augured straight down into the ground. They found plane parts 40 feet down. The field today is empty. Only a huge boulder rests at the exact site where the plane crashed, put there to mark the spot. Nobody is permitted past a certain boundary except family members. There is a white marble wall inscribed with the names of the deceased — heroes, who diverted the plane away from populated centers, and into this rural field. May their memories be for a blessing.

I had come to NY for the shloshim of my wife’s cousin’s wife, murdered in the Sbarro pizza bombing in Yerushalayim. I had planned to be having coffee with an old friend in the Towers that morning. But a cousin in Deal, who I was going to on Tuesday night, called on Monday and told me I had to come Monday night. Hashem apparently had, has, other plans for me. May all the neshamas have an aliyah MOSHIACH NOW, so I can start my new job handing out Tefilin, etc. At Tchias Hamaisim

@Ricola: Amen and thank you!

I was at a job interview in the 50’s and Lexington. The interview was at 8:30am. About 10-15 minutes in, after talking to the hiring manager, it was evident that the job wasn’t a good fit for me – somone burst into the room saying that a plane crashed into one of the towers, and the phones were down. Since the interview was over, I decided to go to my wife’s office on 53rd and 3rd – a few blocks away. My first thought was that a small plane or maybe a helicopter tour crashed into the tower. As I walked out of the building, I looked downtown and saw smoke billowing from the towers – I knew it was something more than that. My thoughts of course floated to my uncle – a lawyer with Cantor Fitzgerald.

When I got to my wife’s office – everyone was glued to the TV. I managed to get a hold of my mom who was a wreck. She had spoken to my aunt, and there was no word from my uncle. As we watched in horror when the towers fell, we began to lose hope. Around noon my mom called me – my Uncle was badly burned in the elevators going from 79 to his office on 104. He managed to walk down the stairs from the 79th floor with the aid of some fire fighters, and was in the Cornell burn unit before the towers collapsed.

Since the city was closed off – they shut down the subways, commuter rail and all of the bridges and tunnels – my Aunt couldn’t get into the city. My wife and I went to the Hospital. The situation was bleak, he didn’t have much hope for survival. He had been severely burned and inhaled burning jet fuel.

Thank G-d, after some long months in recovery and rehab, my Uncle came home. I’m sure that many of us had been to emotional smachot before, but I promise you none of them compare to my cousin (his son’s) Bar Mitzvah in may of 02′.

B”H today, despite some ongoing issues from that day, he leads a normal life.

@ Ryan
@ LR

Thank you for your services to this great country. May God continue to bless you and all members of the United States Armed Forces.

Mr. Speilman worked for Cantor -Fitzgerald. He arrived to his job at one of the towers a few minutes early that day. Since the shiur that he was listening to wasn’t finished yet, he decided to sit down outside until he finished the shiur. Most of his colleagues perished.

@Ryan: Ty for your service!

in school, while on the school bus our driver was and Hatzolah EMT, i remember that long beep for mobilization and how he ran the second he got to school, then i remember praying for all rescue workers, by recces brooklyn was gray already, and we say flying burnt papers,
then for the next few days we got used to the roars of low flying F-16’s

i remember 9/11 as if it happened 2 years ago hard to believe its 15 years.
i was in my office and someone ran in to tell us we all ran downstairs to a store that had a TV to watch the unthinkable, unbelievable unfold in front of us on live TV .
we were all shell shocked not believing what we just witnessed first one tower then the 2nd tower
the enormity of the loss didnt hit us it was surreal

as an active member of our local chevra kadisha i immediately started placing calls to our members to get ready to respond to a mcs=mass casualty situation and be ready to head to new york city

little did i realize at the time that everything and anything was pretty much pulverized and vaporized and no one was getting near the twin tower site for days and weeks to come
fast forward 12 years later my son got engaged and married a very active NY hatzalo members daughter
he tells me after what he witnessed at the WTC his life is changed for ever. he views the islamist threat to us on us soil as real and just a question of when and where (and he quotes law enforcement sources who agree its a question of when and where as for every plan foiled and stopped all the enemy needs is 1 to succeed
hes very upset and cant understand our current govt down playing and even scared to say the name islamist terrorists
if you cant face your enemy and even say their name how can you fight them
hashem yaazor and we are all in hashems hands
may yidden all over have a kesiva vachseema tova

I never comment on threads but need to add at least one more name to EMT Moshe’s list, an old family friend named Victor Wald who died in the towers. Surely there are others who are not on that list and we must not forget them.

One memory that stays with me. My yeshiva walked to a local shul to join in a tehillim asifa. On the way back, picture the scene, a line of yeshiva bochurim wearing hats and jackets crossing the busy street in town, it was very quiet. One guy in a car rolls down his window and yells “It’s all because of you F’ing Jews.” It was shocking yet understandable in the moment. People were scared. I remember wondering if this was the end of our time in America.

I worked in the South Tower on the 12th floor. I arrived at 8:40, was just geeting my coffee when the building shook, the lights flickered and nothing was ever the same again. My co-workers and I ran out of the building right away. WE were about 5 blocks away when our building was hit by a plane. We decided to to go to my daughter’s apartment in the lower East Side. We had just reached Chinatown when the earth shook and we watched our building collapse. We witnessed pure evil that day and will never forget or forgive.

Oholei Torah Zal classroom with windows facing the towers. In middle of Rabbi Bluming’s shiur, a bochur pointed out that there was billows of smoke visible in Manhattan…not much of a shiur after that… There was little to no cell phone reception for the next week…

I was kicked out of yeshiva that morning…

Vesey and West Street posted to assist an EMS triage station.

I was in Israel during second seder.

At the U.S. Embassy Buenos Aires, Argentina serving as a junior Foreign Service Officer. Embassy went into lock down and the warden system was triggered. Eventually, staff left the Embassy for the day. My memories of that day are still very hazy.

I was in Rabbi Nossen Stein’s Yeshiva in Lakewood. A wedding party needed an escort to get through Staten Island because they closed the bridges and tunnels.
We found it hard of course, to concentrate and so we were led in a round of Tehillim and that helped calm everyone down a bit.
It was still hard to be away from family as so many bochurim had family and friends working in Manhattan, even if not directly in the towers.

I was 9 years old, waiting on my bus to take me to cheider, was standing right at the entrance of the Brooklyn Navy Yard in williamsburg, when suddenly we saw the first plane crash into the first tower. I’ll #neverforget the shock we felt at that time.

I was in my senior year high school physics class as a fellow teacher came into the room and broke the news privately to my physics teacher. He immediately rolled out the TV card and turned it on for us all to watch unfold live. Our whole high school was glued to the TV all day long. We all watched in complete horror and fear as to what possibly might come next.

Since it was senior year, the majority of my high school class had already decided on which colleges to apply to and which career paths to pursue. I had begun taking flying lessons two years earlier and had decided to become an airline pilot. After that tragic day I began to have second thoughts as to my career path. Most of my family recommended I do something else like a doctor or engineer. However I felt like doing something different and felt passionate about. So I continued flying, went to a college in Florida with a professional flight program but after all was said and done I decided to pursue a career in aviation public service and law enforcement. I enjoy serving my community and country even though it’s minimal compared to others.

God bless America!

At 8:35 AM I was standing across from the towers contemplating whether to walk or take the bus the few blocks down to 1 New York Plaza after having just gotten off the A train from southern Queens.

It was a beautiful day weather wise so I don’t know what possessed me to take the bus. I was at 1NYP when I heard the news and was watching it in the conference room until they evacuated our building after the first of the towers fell.

After making it down to the lobby, I eventually made the decision to try and make it to the SI Ferry terminal. I did. I was in the terminal when the second of the towers fell and remember the cloud of dust enveloping the terminal and the visibility going to zero.

Eventually a ferry came to take us to Staten Island. Nearly EVERYONE on the ferry was holding or wearing a life vest.

When we returned to work after Rosh Hashanah I remember the site of every few feet having armed uniformed soldiers or national guardsman lining the walkways. I can also never forget the stench in the air – which surely was the smell of burnt human remains.

That evening I stayed on Staten Island with family, and was watching the news when 7 WTC came down. I had worked in 7WTC prior to 1NYP.

16 years later I have not been back to WTC site since.

My story is nothing compared to those that were actually in the towers at the time. I’m afraid though the liberals in this country have not learned anything from the September 11th, 2001 attacks.

I was actually on a flight from TLV and they announced mid-flight over England, there where about 90 boys from yeshiva from 2 groups.
The pilot said he’s still trying to get into canadian airspace.
We where the last plane that crossed the atlantic landing 7 hours after the attack in toronto
Elal called up the orthodox jewish and asked them to host the ~400 passengers, was a huge kiddush hashem on how nice the community welcomed and hosted us with such a warm heart.

I used to take the bus from Brooklyn every morning to the WTC and walk towards my office which was about 7-8 blocks up the west side highway. As I was a new intern at the time, my morning duty was to buy donuts for my group, which I did every day at the kosher krispy kreme at the bottom of the WTC. But that day I was running late due to the longer davening because of selichos, so I got off the bus and started walking right away. After I got about 3-4 blocks up, the first plane flew right over my head and hit the building where I would’ve been if not for saying selichos that day. I watched people jump from the towers and saw both buildings collapse from about 10 blocks away, the images are burned into my mind forever. I ended up walking across the Williamsburg bridge with thousands of people and got a ride home later in the afternoon. I’ll never forget the pickup truck parked right in middle on the Williamsburg side, with chassidim standing there handing out bottles of water to everyone who passed. Every store there was inviting people inside to catch a rest, get a drink, use the phone etc. As many people here wrote above, we saw our people and our nation unite like never before.

I was home on my day off, watching TV. As soon as I saw the first plane hit, I knew it was intentional. It did not appear to be out of control. It looked like it aimed at the WTC. I was yelling at the TV to evacuate.
The next day, I was taking care of many victims who walked over the bridge. Some barefoot, in schock. Fireman who were coughing soot. Families, calling, hoping their loved ones were with us alive

I had called in sick to work because of a bad migraine. But I did something I can’t explain. I decided to put the news on for some background noise. I shout at people for breathing too loud when I have a migraine so putting the tv on makes no sense. I heard them say there was a horrible accident and they thought a commuter plane had hit the tower. Of course I turned to watch. Before too long, I watched the second plane hit the second tower on live tv like so many others. Then everything seemed to happen so quickly. I don’t remember having any migraine pain the rest of that day.

All of the large, significant events had happened within just an hour and a half, but we didn’t know they were over. We were waiting for whatever might be next. I live within 10 miles of Three Mile Island. That means we get free potassium iodide pills from the government. My mind always goes there. I remember finally calming down closer towards dark. We sat, like zombies, in front of our tv, for several weeks afterwards, in any of our free time, desperate for any news about the victims. Hoping for miracles, answers, anything.

We had been married exactly one month before. We had flown out of BWI for a 10 day honeymoon in Bora Bora and were just settling back into our everyday normal with the wedding and that crazy pace behind us. I also didn’t know that I was pregnant. Later I realized how lucky we were to have our honeymoon during a time in history that no longer existed, and also a time of calm and relaxed air travel that wouldn’t return for quite some time.

My husband had earned a trip through his employer to NYC. We were supposed to be staying at the Marriot WTC about 2 weeks after 9/11. That was rescheduled for October. We stayed in Times Square and went down to the WTC site. I was immediately overcome with emotion. So many lives lost. So many families left with not a trace of their loved one. It felt as if I would violate the victims if I stepped on the dust.

I was watching TV today and the program I had on did not show the moment of silence for the plane hitting the second tower. It takes a lot to offend me, but I was just disgusted. How long until it is not televised at all? How long until people just shrug their shoulders? I wonder how long it took until people felt this way about Pearl Harbor?

I can close my eyes and go right back there. Not to my bedroom but to those feelings from that day. I WAS in my bedroom, and many of you were so much closer, so much more involved. Thank you for your dedication, and your service. Words can never express my full respect and admiration. I know I can never forget.

#Always Remember site’s bucket brigade

God Bless all of those who perished, were injured or lost loved ones.

If I had gotten the job
@Reinsurrance on the 100th floor I wldnt b writing to you today / I was a temp on the 72 floor in tower 2 they treated me so very nice I got to know the lovely girl who sorted the mail in her slippers every day saw one of the window cleaners who was outside laughing at my fear for him – another man came in to replace my boss he was thin tall and had spectacles – knowing my job was finishing I applied to the Reinsurrance company (word of mouth available) bc of reference they were interested in me but apparently cldnt decide to hire after a few weeks being already out of a job I decided to move on that was approximately a year before 9/11 – the nice ppl I knew including the lovely lady from HR on the 74fl I dont know if they survived / I do know since I was told the new boss with the spectacles did not survive – where was I on 9/11 – on a bus to Manhattan we were turned around to go home – my son opened the door and in shock said the Pentagon had been attacked – I loved my job and the ppl in tower 2 I loved tower 2 it and the whole complex felt like home – I am also an Israeli but the searing anger and hurt will never leave my American heart – and it comes back every year to haunt me…

i was on the last train coming in from hobokem. When i got off there was an acrid odor and as we went up the escalators,I noted men in uniforms running. Once prople saw that, everyone started running. The word was that a bomb had gone off. Everyone else ran for the doors to the street but I am an architect and kept thinking that there is safety in the indfrastructure of the subway so I stayed below ground as far as I could and went up at Chambers St. There was a very definite unease in the air and papers and debris were floating about. I continued to Park Row and as I passed a local pizzaria there I suddenly felt a warm thrust of air, firm and definite. Someone opened the pizza shop door and literally pulled me inside.” Its not safe out there”. I later learned that the warm burst of air I felt was the second plane hitting the Twin Towers.

i was in the army. I was stationed in Alaska. I was actually being awarded a soldier of the month award when my unit, the 164th military police, all their pagers went off at the same time and they all ran out. the commander came to me and said you are from ny? I said yes sir, and he had me go the war room, 100 feet below ground and I tried to call my parents on the sat phone.

I was down the block, taking a computer programming course at Cope (2nd day). We all had to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.

I was on the crosstown bus on 42nd street on my way to work when the first plane hit.

I was headed to the Airport to fly to Chicago for training for a new job I had taken, ended up on rescheduled flight a week later, there was one other passenger on the plane (MD 80) if I recall.

9 years old in a Canadian elementary school. Spent the morning arguing with my classmates that it didn’t make sense that 2 planes crashed into the twin towers (which I had never heard of before that day) by accident, and it must have been a hijacking.

I was there in my office, with a narrow floor to ceiling window, on the 26th floor, 1 block away from the Towers. I watched as 1 tower collapsed & a huge cloud came rolling down the canyon between the buildings directly at me. One of the scariest moments in my life!

listening to Howard Stern.

I was off that day. The next day I was doing Triage in our ER in Bklyn. Many people who walked over the bridge for hours came into the ER full of soot, abrasions, physically & emotionally exhausted. Some lived in New Jersey, but had no way of getting home since the roads were only open for emergency vehicles. A group of Fireman came from the WTC to our ER covered in black soot, no way of telling one from another. Smoke was still surrounding them, BUT Their eyes told the tragedy. Soooooo many calls asking if we had their missing relatives from the WTC.
I went through a list of WTC patients we received. Over and over again I had to say NO. Their relatives were not on the list.
For weeks, we received pictures of missing victims that families sent us, just in case we got in a unidentified coma patient. Several walls at triage were filled with those heartbreaking pictures for a long time.
A frum man survived because a guy called him & asked if he could come up to his WTC office for tzadoka. This frum man didn’t want to make the guy come up to him. He decided to come to the lobby to give him tzadokah. While they were in the lobby, the plane hit. No one on his office floor survived.

My wife and I were married that day at around 2pm in front of 770 eastern parkway. We could see the smoke billowing to our left and crown heights was practically a ghost town. You could hear a pin drop in front of our chupa. Such a crazy day to get married.

Supposed to be at pre-conference breakfast at Windows of the World, where everyone else perished. Only reason I was not there was as a result of davening Slichos for the Amud, came home a few minutes late, my youngest asked to put him on his school bus. Driving down West Side Hgwy to conf, heard from Howard Stern what was going on, forced off at 58th. My wife, who was downtown at work already, managed to take the last train back to Port Authority, somehow got a cab to where I was waiting – somehow our cell phones were working. First car not allowed to cross back over GWB, waited for several hours at YU until bridge reopened.

itchy heschel the brother of kapitchnitzer rebbe shlita was in the building a min before it collapsed

I was in Hebrew class and the principal called us into the Beit Midrash for Tehillim, which caused us all to think it was another attack in Israel . . . but it was on the home soil that time.

I was on my way to work on 80 and saw a tower on fire then the second tower erupt:(
At work in Caldwell we felt them collapse like an earthquake before it appeared on our computers.

I made the later train since my daughter was late for school and was in Hoboken when the planes hit; not New York. I worked across the street from the WTC. I think I am ready to visit the memorial.

I was off that day. The next day I was doing Triage in our ER. Many people who walked over the bridge came into the ER full of soot, abraisons, exhausted. They lived in New Jersey, but no way of getting home. A group of Fireman that came from the WTC came to the ER full if black soot, smoke still surrounding them. Their eyes told the tragedy. Soooooo many calls asking if we had their relatives from the WTC

I was on the Verrazano bridge and saw a spark from left. as I looked over I saw a bright fire burning. by the time I got to a bridge on the belt pkwy we all stopped to look at the towers. I remember my first reaction was to say tehillim.

Was in LA not too far from YOEC, 11 years old at the time, around 6am just finished saying seliches at bais yehuda, on my way home stopped at cafe elite to buy breakfast, when an Asian guy from the cleaners next door burst in yelling “AIRPLANE JUST CRASHED INTO WORLD TRADE CENTER” wasn’t sure what he was talking about. thought he said something about Train Center/Train Station…didn’t understand how an airplane can crash into a train station, then I heard “Twin Towers” that’s when I started to understand whats happening. Remember going home feeling so unsafe. I don’t think we had cheder that day. Remember seeing a gardener cutting someones grass, was wondering why is he working, felt like he was the only person going on with his day…

I was on the bus from Monsey to an appointment in Manhattan. The men started shushing so the ladies became curious, until everyone was speaking at once. A bus that was at the tunnel radioed the driver that all roads to the city are closed, so we turned back.

I was working in Queens, the rush hour commute home was surreal. The notorious Van Wyck expressway, usually the worlds largest parking lot, was closed for emergency vehicles only and totally empty- everyone was shunted to the service road. I remember turning on the TV after getting home and seeing only static- all the local TV transmitters were on the roof of the WTC and now gone. The only stations operating were Telemundo and local UHF.
The next week was quiet, empty skies with an occasional fighter jet, very wrong for a community near JFK airport. I saw the column of smoke from the “pit” for weeks afterwards.

I think of the eerie quiet that day and the next. No planes, no trains. Almost no cars on the streets.

@zg

In a similar story, my father (who worked in one of the towers from the day it opened until Erev Purim 5746, so he had been out for more than 5 years already) at a later time davened at a work Mincha minyan with a fellow, Reuven Berlowitz (sp?). Reuven, who had worked for Cantor Fitzgerald (I think) in the WTC, told my father that on his way to work that morning he had been being Maavir Sedra on the subway. When he got to his stop, he found that he was in middle of the tochacha in Parshas Ki Savo. He was uncomfortable stopping in middle of the tochacha, so he stayed in the subway station a bit longer in order to continue being Maavir Sedra until he finished the tochacha. Then he headed to the office but the first plane hit the building just before he made it there. He had no doubt that had he not tarried the extra few minutes in the subway station to finish his Shnayim Mikra he would have reached his office already, and been killed with everyone else.

My father then asked him, why he was saying the tochacha that day, as Ki Savo had been the *previous* week’s Sedra.

He responded, “What, you were never behind, before?”

So not only did his not wanting to stop his Shnayim Mikra in the middle of the tochacha save his life, the tochacha he was in middle of was not even in that week’s Sedra!

[No one can understand the way Hashem works, and we cannot ever suppose we know why he does what he does, but, in this case, this would seem to be consistent with the Gemara in Bavli, Brochos 8a-b:

אמר רב הונה בר יהודה אמר רבי אמי: לעולם ישלים אדם פרשיותיו עם הצבור שנים מקרא ואחד תרגום, ואפילו ״עטרות ודיבון״, שכל המשלים פרשיותיו עם הצבור מאריכין לו ימיו ושנותיו.]

North tower. 41st floor. Window cubicle facing north. Building swayed. A lot. Could not decide if it was earthquake or a bomb. Effects were much more pronounced than what I felt in 1993 (but in 1993, I was on much higher floor compared to 2001). Lots of things fell from floor above. Dont know why but I didnt bother to investigate looking out of the window. But did take time (may be 2 full minutes) to shutdown PC, gather my stuff and start walking down nearest staircase (in a non-hurried fashion). (Had done evacuation practice dril just couple of months ago). Not many people in the stairway until about floor 15. Dont remember seeing any firemen going up (They might be but do not recall). Was more preoccupied thinking about how much of work can be done offline from my apartment as my powerpoint was far from complete. Didnt hear impact of the second plane. While outside, both towers were on fire. In a daze, just followed other to the ferry termnal and went home. Dont remeber looking back from the boat. Did not turn on TV until later that afternoon. I think I was in daze for months. Worked from New Jersey office. DId not step a foot in Manhattan imtil second anniversary two years later. Did not lose any close friends and coworkers. But yes, knew about two dozens of them. Was very angry. At Pakistan – for creating this Taliban mess. At Americans for beating up (and even killing) Sikhs. At Bush/GOP for using 9/11 as an excuse to facilitate xenophobic acts. Anyway although 18 years is a long time. A friend’s son born that day (in Manhattan hospital) is in college now. But somehow, it seems, it happened just last week. Very sad. Both for families who lost loved ones that day and for innocent families who have suffered (sometimes many times) at hands of Fox News watching, Trump supporting crowd.
(Fan of DanDeals but hope you understand why I want to wothhold my name)

I worked in Yonkers, NY, but worked from home that day to take care of some mundane tasks, like going to the car dealership to get my glove box door fixed (!) I was sitting in the waiting room, working on my laptop and looked up at the TV there. I thought “I don’t remember reading about a new disaster movie being made.” Slowly people began to filter in; the millisecond that the 2nd plane hit, everyone knew this was no accident.
I had to go to get photos of my car taken for insurance purposes (NJ). I didn’t have a TV and was frantic to know what was happening. When I got home, of course you couldn’t get on the Internet, pages loaded in text format.
My 3 boys were in Yeshiva: Israel, Milwaukee and Brooklyn – no cellphone access.
I remember sitting outside with neighbors. Both schools in Passaic sent people to different streets to let us know that both parent bodies were safe; that was an incredible chesed.
I remember Yom Kippur that year; Usaneh Tokef was so hard, so real.
I was fortunate; I didn’t lose anyone close to me B”H; but we all, unfortunately gained a knowledge that life would change drastically.

I was in 6th grade in yeshivah, the principal cam in and said something quietly to my rebbe. The yeshivah said tehillim in the Beis Medresh and we were sent home from school early.

I just got compensation from the 9/11 fund my lawyer is a real expert about the fund Messege me if you need his info

Dan, I bought the book “The day the world came to town” (your link, of course ;)). It arrived on Friday. I read it in a day. Fascinating read, and indeed does restore faith in humanity. Thanks for the recommendation!

I was sitting at my desk in Riverdale when the call came out. Me and two other units jumped on the hatzolah ambulance and drove down the west side Highway behind a fire truck and went straight in front of The North Tower. A Fire Marshal told us to stay right there & if he had any burn patients was going to give them to us. We stood there watching as debris and unfortunately neshomas came down from high above. The Tower came down as we stood across the street giving assistance. So many Miracles occurred that day. Not one hatzolah member was lost in this tragedy.

I was home, cleaning. My son, attending The George Washington University in DC called me to tell me to turn on the TV. We then watched, he at his apartment and me at home, while on the phone together. He said that his roommate, Yona had already left for class, and that he felt he should go look for him.. Their apartment was only 4 blocks from the Capital… I begged him to stay put, and luckily he listened to me.. Our friends’ son, a Navy man stationed at the Pentagon, perished that day. Michael Noeth. May his name always be for a Blessing, along with all the other souls whose time ended too soon.

I worked across the street from the WTC (130 Liberty – South Tower fell into this building) and was asked to come in early that Morning. B’Chasdei Hashem with Davening taking longer and for “some reason” the Bus I took (rather than taking the train that day) was delayed so by the time we reached the Battery Tunnel (takes you from Brooklyn into Lower Manhatten) The building was already hit and we were not allowed to proceed. We were already on the way back when the towers fell. The stories of those that made it into the office that morning & lived were horrifying.

I was on the F train in Brooklyn (above ground at that point on the route heading to the World Trade Center stop, my destination for work where I was to arrive at 9:30 am. From the train we saw flames (direct view of WTC). Someone had a radio and we heard the initial confused reports. The train stopped running at Jay Street, thankfully. I called my office at the OU on a pay phone in the station. They had not yet evacuated but did shortly afterwards. I headed back to Brooklyn, stunned, exited the train to “snow” falling from the sky. Watched the towers fall on TV. The day and its aftermath, and my escape by minutes from possible death, stays with me forever.

I was in Israel visiting my mother ע״ה. We had been out having some fun together and arrived home. Her neighbor came and pounded on the door yelling to us to turn on the TV. We switched it on to the horror of the news coming from New York. I kind of stood there numb and as I watched the first tower collapsed. My legs gave way and I recall the irony of two elderly ladies ( my mum and her neighbor) trying to get me up off my knees when I hit the floor.
Subsequent days of empathy wherever I went in Jerusalem. Questions as to the safety of my family (all safe ב״ה).Wondering if I’d get home in time to be with my husband and children in time for Rosh HaShana. Assuring my family in New York that they would be OK even if I didn’t make it home.
I was on one of the first planes allowed back in to US airspace to New York. Even though I flew into JFK the pilot flew over Manhattan. I was on the left side of the plane. I clearly saw the smoldering rubble in the great gaping absence of where the buildings had gone down and so many lives were lost and shattered. There was silence on the plane other than the sound of muffled crying.
ה׳ יקום דמם. May we merit peace And health and ימי המשיח בקרוב.

I remember the ashes raining down. I remember hearing classmates talk about how “the twin towers fell down”, and I only heard exactly what it meant when the principal gathered the whole School together and announced the news. My father watched the towers collapsing from his office window several blocks away and then walked all the way back to our home in Brooklyn. I remember that I had classmates who lived practically around the corner from where one or two of the highjackers lived. I also remember at the time hearing reports from classmates who lived close to or in Muslim neighboorhoods, that there were public celebrating of the attack, although to be honest I can’t remember if it was first or second hand reports, or if it was actually “thousands on rooftops” like some have described it, but I definitely heard those reports at the time.

I was on Long Island. In 3rd grade – My School went into lock down that day. Kids in my classroom were crying. Parents came to pick us up at school. My father took me up to Merrick Mountain which is a landfill turned into a nature preserve and I have the vivid memory seeing the smoke fill the NYC sky.

Hi Dan,

Will never forget that day.

I was in a Networking/Learning program in IDT which was in Newark, NJ right across the Hudson from NYC and as being the tallest building in Newark had a clear view of the Twin Towers.

We had finished davening Shachris when news came in that the Towers were hit. We quickly went to the top floor and looked out the windows and all we saw was a trail of smoke coming out of the Tower. We didn’t know what to make of it but it was very tense and we all had fear. When the second plane hit, all of us watching from window saw the plane enter the Tower, it was surreal and still tremble when thinking of that day. We were all stunned and shocked, especially with news that “Mall of America” was hit…..”White House”…. we all put our tefillin back on and started saying tehillim. The blame was first thrown at the PLO…while we were saying tehillim we all watched as the first tower crumbled like a set of lego. It was a time of such fear that we really had nobody to turn to except the one and only Hashem. When the second tower collapsed we all were just crying and trying to keep it together for the unknown that will be happening going forward.

Was not possible to get home to Brooklyn that night either……was a real awakening that we are not in control.

May all be blessed and may God watch over all of us.

I was in Chaider (School) next to the hooper ave fire dept and we had a clear shot seeing the 2nd plane alot of kids saw it in our school, then we were right next to fire station where Satmar UTA School busses transported the fire man to ground zero, old memories

It was 19 years ago, and I was working on Wall Street at the time for one of the big Investment Banks downtown.

At the time, I used to travel into the city by train every day, picking up the New Jersey Transit train in Suffern at 7:38 AM every morning and then transferring to the PATH train in Hoboken for the quick ride under the Hudson River, eventually arriving in the bowels of the World Trade Center at 8:50 every single morning. I would then take that huge PATH escalator up to the street level of the World Trade Center where I would walk the few blocks to my office.

On this beautiful morning in 2001, a good friend of mine was making a bris for his son that morning in what was then the MealMart at Wesley Kosher. I was going back and forth for a couple of days deciding if I should go to that bris or not. Finally, on that Tuesday morning, when I got up, I decided that it was worth getting to work late that day for the occasion and went to the bris.

After attending the bris and getting some breakfast, I hurried to the Suffern train station to try and catch the 9:00 AM train into the city. I actually got to the train station a few minutes early and was sitting in my car listening to the radio. And so it was that at 8:50 AM that morning, instead of being in the World Trade Center, I was still in the Suffern train station waiting for the train to work, listening to the radio when they broke in to the news that a small plane had just, at 8:46 AM, crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. They were going on and on about how it would be possible that a small plane could misjudge and crash into the building. At that point, I decided to not get on the 9:00 AM train just yet since I wasn’t sure what the situation would be downtown that day. As I continued listening, at precisely 9:03 AM, as the reporters were live from the World Trade Center, they announced in horror that another plane, this one looking much bigger, had just crashed into the South Tower. At that moment it dawned on everyone that we just witnessed the largest terrorist attack on U.S soil in history.

And thanks to my friend making a bris that morning, I heard the attacks live on the radio from the safety of my car in Monsey!!!!!

I was in a yeshiva dorm room out of the country. It was post-davening when the first word came. People turned on their radios and stayed glued to them for the most part, but I ran to the phones (no cell phones those days!) to try to get in touch with my parents. My father worked downtown a few blocks from the world trade center, and the feeling of panic was like nothing I have ever experienced before or since. No phones worked, all circuits were busy. Someone came by to say they’re saying tehillim in the beis medrash, so I left the phones and ran to join them. After extensive tehillim, on my way out back to the phones I noticed a couple of younger kids laughing with each other, seeming to not be taking the situation seriously. I remember walking up to them and saying “I don’t know if my father is dead or alive right now, this is not something to be joking about.” Thank God, found out he was ok hours later. He was in his building when the planes hit, and managed to jump on a bus that was fleeing the scene when the towers started to fall. He was completed covered in ash head to toe by the time he got off Manhattan, as was everyone else in the area.

In Toronto alone in the office I worked in. Someone from a different office came running down the hall to tell me.
They had an ancient TV in their office which we literally took a wire hanger to make bunny ears so we could get a station to watch on. I called my mother who worked in a local yeshiva office in Toronto to tell her. As a born and bred NYer she didn’t believe me. I called her again the second time and she burst out crying. She didn’t think such a thing was possible. Someone in her office ran home to get a radio. (Way before local schools had internet!) I was 23 at the time. Will never forget. Was at the 9/11 museum around two years ago, horrifying, and really fascinating at the same time.

Guys please use english terms or put a translation next to the jewish words( Hebrew?) . I want to understand what you guys are talking about but cant.
I now know niftar because someone posted the translation.

When I first heard about it, i was just getting to the GW and tuning into a morning “drive time” show on my way into work in midtown (Gramercy Park to be exact) –the reports were so bizarre I thought I was listening to a very strange morning radio “bit”. Then after crossing over the GW and getting on the Harlem River, I started hearing the sirens behind me, in front of me…it seemed like every emergency service professional was converging on the unfolding horror show… I’m a typical New Yorker…so I still didn’t let myself believe what I was hearing — I felt it was over-hyped reporting trying to make a big deal out of what probably was a small plane hitting the Trade Center…then plane 2 hit and reports started coming in about how they were commercial flights…For some reason, I didn’t turn around and look for a way out of the city(probably because my wife’s frantic calls to me weren’t getting through), Instead, I kept going until I got the to office…and like everyone else who made it in, was too shell shocked to get anything done…I don’t remember why but i DO remember leaving after 9 that night…in the weeks that followed walking around Manhattan made it disturbingly easy to understand what the term “shell shocked” means. Unlike the current Covid situation…nobody seemed eager or even interested to get back to normal” I always tell people the one thing I was grateful for is were all the post-summer/deadlines we were dealing with which didn’t change reality but DID let me take my mind off things for a while

Morgan Stanley. 72nd floor. Had just arrived at work.
Did I see the plane or heard the noise – I do not recall.
It was very loud. May be bomb.
Took the backpack and ran down.
Staircase began getting crowded in low 40s as NYC Bravest were coming up.
But no one was panicking.
About 40-50 minutes to get out.
Jumpers. Still see them some nights in sleep. Horrible.

God bless America.

Please vote for America in November, not for Saudis or Putin.

I was at home, our son was at college in Washington DC. He called and told me to turn the tv on. We stayed in the phone together as the events of the morning unfolded before our eyes. He now lives in nyc and works next to the memorial. My friend’s son, michoel, perished in the attack on the pentagon. BDE.

I was 10 years old in a sixth grade classroom in chicago. I still remember the day as if it was yesterday.

The video by United was very well done.
And yet we are told by President Biden, that white supremacy is thee greatest threat facing our Nation. It’s not terrorists. It’s white heterosexual males wearing MAGA hats. Go figure.

Getting my MBA at Auburn…we all left class and went to the MBA office to see it. Our professor wanted us to go back to class but we didn’t and we saw the second crash and we went home

I lived in Los Angeles back then. I always woke up early to talk to colleagues on the east coast and I would set the VCR to tape my wife’s favorite soap operas and was a human alarm clock for her as she is not a morning person, but had to go to work. So I was setting up the VCR at like 6AM LA time and saw the news. The wife of my primary care physician was on UA175 from BOS-LAX.

My sons Bris

9/11/22
Bump

I was on the Williamsburg side of the water with sadly a perfect clear line of sight of the towers (sadly a much better clearer view than those on the Manhattan side) and watched in horror as they burned and first one collapsed then the other the images of people jumping and ultimately the towers collapsing on themselves will never leave me . After the collapses I went with several volunteers to give out water and food to terrified shellshocked people walking over the Williamsburg bridge and hopefully made a קידוש השם to comfort in small way all those that suffered through that horrific day.

I was on my way to work, exiting the NJ Turnpike, with my boss in tow, coming from Lakewood.
I turned on the radio to get a traffic update, soon after the first plane hit.
I thought, it must be a War of the Worlds redo. But it wasn’t.
We watched fighter planes flying over our warehouse in NJ, watched the second tower come down.
Called my wife, ran home, we were both shaken up, did not know if there was a war going on or not.
Friends commuting to the subway at the WTC barely made it out.
Oy.

IINM the 9/11 museum closed

my moms stomach!

I was driving into work (office across the street from the WTC in the Century 21 building). Was on Flatbush Avenue near 4th (where the Atlantic Center is today) and noticed smoke rising from the North Tower in the distance. Was listening to WCBS 880 NewsRadio, but no mention of anything. Called my secretary and she exclaimed that a ‘small’ plane had hit the North Tower and people were trapped etc. Called my wife and told her that I was heading over the (Brooklyn) bridge, but by the time I got to Tillary and Bridge, it was already blocked. Spent most of the day in Brooklyn Heights, evacuating staff to Brooklyn. PS. My daughter was late for school that day at BR, so I waited and dropped her off at 8:30am sharp, otherwise I would have been there when the first plane hit! BH

I was on the Verrazano bridge – I will never forget it.

I was in Boston in yeshiva.

I was with my wife driving south on Ocean Parkway to drop off our 4 year old at nursery. We noticed a lot of Hatzolah vehicles going the other way towards Manhattan.
When we got to the nursery just before 9am, the director came running out, screaming, “Planes hit the Twin Towers! Planes hit the Twin Towers!” I said, “Planes? Plural?” And she replied, “Yes! 2 planes!”
I then said, “TWO planes? That’s terrorism!”
I was right. I wish I wasn’t.

Second grade classroom in Yeshiva of Kings Bay.

I was on the E train on my way to work at 4 WTC.
last train that pulled in a little after 9 ( I was late that day to work getting my son ready for his day of school ) He slept late for the first time in his life after being up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.

Never went into the concourse since people were running out screaming there was a bomb. I exited through the far side by barnes and noble and that’s when I saw all the chaos.

A lot of Hashgacha Pratos that day

I can assure you there were more cell phones in YOEC that day.

I had one too but couldn’t use it in the open.

I was on Army Reserve duty at Ft. Belvoir, VA, about 9 miles from the Pentagon. I heard about the first tower on the car radio. As I was parking. I heard about the second tower. There was a conference on military contracts I was attending, and when the Pentagon was hit, they stopped the conference and all the generals and admirals were sent to emergency stations. There was no chaplain, so seeing my yarmulka, someone asked me to lead a prayer. I got a Tehilas Hashem out of the chapel and read #23 in Hebrew and English. Then we all left.

I was in Shul when the first plane hit. I was sitting on my porcelain throne listening to the radio when the second one hit.

I was in the first group doing shmirah before any kind of system was set up, on 9/14. There was no trailer. We took shifts out in the staging area amongst the OCME staff waiting for more trucks bringing remains from Ground Zero. No one knew who I was or why I was there. Inside the innermost of multiple security perimeters at a time of still heightened alert and alarm, an FBI agent relentlessly interrogated me about my presence and where I got the OCME “clergy” ID tag. Once he was satisfied, he wished me “zei gezunt” and left me to my Tehillim.
Obviously so much more to say, but words cannot capture the intensity, trauma, caring, tragedy, and spirituality of that surreal experience.
I’m reading “Who Owns the Dead? The Science and Politics of Death at Ground Zero” which is about the process of identifying remains and memorializing those lost. Not for the faint of heart, but an important part of the history.

Arrived to WTC via PATH train from NJ @ 8:30. Was in my office on the 33rd floor of 1 Liberty Plaza by 8:40. Heard loud explosion and felt the building shake. Looked out the window and couldn’t believe my eyes. I was closest to the window overlooking the WTC, so I got there first. Seeing all the other’s expressions as they got to the window overlooking the WTC, made the horror hit me even more. My employer told us to evacuate within a few minutes to go to another one of our other downtown offices. When I got outside, it was even more horrifying, seeing bodies fall. I couldn’t think straight. I saw one of my colleagues on the street, and he said, too dangerous to remain downtown. I knew I couldn’t get back to NJ, so I decided to head for my in-laws in Brooklyn. Headed for the 2/3 train (dumb move, BH, no issues, as it goes close to the WTC). As I entered the stairway, the second plane hit. I was telling folks coming up the stairs what happened, they pushed me aside like I was a lunatic. Luckily no issues, on the 2/3 train, I switched to a D to go to kings highway. By the time, the train was above ground, they announced the subway was shutting down, and it went express. People who don’t normally talk to each other, were talking on the train, and were polite and concerned for each other’s well being. It was there I learned that the towers were hit by planes (I had thought they were bombs at first).

Was a 5 year old in kindergarten, Morah took to toy sticks and presented her hands crashing into them as an explanation for “going home early”…

I was at City Hall Park ushering people towards the Brooklyn Bridge ramps, and some into ambulances for minor injury treatment. At night at Ground Zero on a bucket brigade.

So many poor people lost their lives for no reason at all.

We are all part of history now. God wiling we can unify once again, without a horrific event like this. Hopefully we can all find time to love and respect one another again.

Shalom, Pace, Paz, Peace ✌

I was late to school that day and I told some kids by recess. The kids didn’t believe me. I remember the debris and ashes floating in the air. My school wasn’t too far from the verazzano bridge….

9/11 reminds me of my cousin Charlie who is a pilot for United. For years he flew the Flight 93 route. His incredible story is below- I’m confident many here will find it intriguing.

https://mishpacha.com/flying-higher/