22 minute read
9-11: 20 Years Later
Most adults can tell you exactly where they were and what they were doing when they first learned about the terror attacks that sunny Tuesday morning on Sept. 11, 2001.
For 81 Metro Detroiters, that memory includes a stop for ice cream in a mall at Alonim Junction in the Jezreel Valley, en route to Migdal HaEmek in the Detroit Partnership region.
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They were there as part of a national United Jewish Communities (UJC) Mission, meant to show solidarity with Israelis who were experiencing suicide bombings on nearly a daily basis in wake of the Second Intifada, which had started a year earlier. “The communities of our Partnership 2000 region were suffering and we needed to show our concern by being there to express our solidarity,” said Mark Davidoff, then CFO of Federation, who was on the mission. Tourism to Israel had dried up, and Federation wanted to participate in the mission to “focus on giving comfort to our friends in Israel,” he said.
Before the trip was over, the tables would be turned, and it would be the Israelis who provided comfort to their American friends.
Mark Davidoff
GETTING THE NEWS ON THE BUS
Staff Writer Harry Kirsbaum was on the mission, covHarry ering the event for Kirsbaum the Jewish News. “I remember this one lady, who had been going the opposite way on the expressway when she passed our buses,” he said. “She turned around to follow the buses and when we stopped, she ran up and thanked us. She said it was good to see buses on the road again.”
At that stop, people’s phones started ringing, telling of a plane hitting the World Trade Center in New York. “We didn’t initially understand what was going on,” said Larry Jackier, who headed up the Detroit delegation. Larry Jackier Bert Stein was on the mission as a participant, eager to show his support for Israel when it was “alone in the world.” “When someone said a plane hit the World Trade Center, I thought it was a Bert Stein feasible accident,” he said. “Then someone said a second plane had hit the tower. My first thought was naive: ‘Isn’t that a coincidence?’ I couldn’t believe that people would want to hurt people in New York City. Then, of course, I realized it was a terror attack.”
Marta Rosenthal was on the mission with her 22-year-old daughter Rachel. “We were frantic because my husband was in Chicago and my younger daughter was in Washington, D.C., at university, and we couldn’t get hold of them,” she said.
Jackier said their bus driver had the news on and began to translate what he was hearing into English for those who didn’t speak Hebrew.
“It became very clear that America was under attack,” Davidoff said. “We tried but couldn’t get a single call home.
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— HARRY KIRSBAUM
OUR COMMUNITY
continued from page 15
Lines were overloaded. When we heard about the Pentagon attack, the bus pulled off the road. As far as we knew, the entire country was under attack. People were anxious and concerned.”
Some people wanted to end the mission, turn the bus around and go home, but Jackier insisted they continue on to be with “their family in the region.”
Jackier said, “After the initial shock, people from Detroit were amazing. We all stuck together. We all hugged each other. There were no problems after that initial reaction when we first heard it. Everyone was terrific under extremely difficult circumstances.”
Kirsbaum said he was glad when Jackier said the attacks wouldn’t deter the mission. “All the airports were closed so we weren’t going back anyway,” he added.
Kirsbaum, who was sitting with freelance photographer Debbie Hill on the bus, has another chilling memory. “She told me she had just got a message from a colleague in the West Bank, who said the Palestinians were celebrating with gusto, passing out candy to children.
“It brought everything home to me. This is what Israel had been dealing with on a daily basis,” he added. “We were hated by the same people. We were all in the same boat.” Meanwhile, Jane Sherman, who was the national chairperson for the 500-person mission, was driving with the chief of UJC on their way to Nazareth Illit. “When we heard the news, we turned around and headed back to Jerusalem,” she said. “We had over 200 people from New York on the mission. Amazingly, none lost a first-degree relative that day.”
Sherman turned her attention to coordinating arrangements to take care of the mission- goers. “The Israeli government was fabulous. They sent in their trauma teams to every hotel. We arranged to make sure people had enough medicine if we had to stay longer. We tried to keep the mission going and provide as much as loving care for the group as we could,” she said.
Sherman got on the phone and began working with the government and El Al Airlines to try to get people back home.
Jane Sherman
PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL
IN METRO DETROIT’S PARTNERSHIP REGION
When the Detroiters arrived at Migdal HaEmek, there was a huge welcoming assembly awaiting them. “It felt like the entire community had come out to support us when the plan had been for us to support them,” Davidoff said. “The tables had been turned instantly. It was a heart-wrenching moment.”
Stein said of the welcome, “We went to console the Israelis, and we were being consoled. Israeli were hugging us because people wanted to hurt America. There was a lot of love around and a lot of tears.”
Marta Rosenthal and her daughter Rachel headed to a friend’s house in the region to see if they could contact their family back home. “We have a unique Partnership Region. We’ve become a family. I think what was so helpful that day is that we were with family. That’s how I felt, and I think others felt the same way. We felt clearly that we were not alone.”
Rachel recalls watching CNN and seeing footage of the events at their friend’s house. “We couldn’t get through to my sister by phone, so we tried email,” she said. “Eventually, we got a reply saying she was fine.”
Marta remembers that they had planned a huge party that night, but then they
LEFT: Steven
Posner of Southfield, Barbara Cantor of West Bloomfield and David Raben of Livonia at a memorial service for the victims of the attack in America held at the Nofota School in Nazareth Illit in Israel’s Central Galilee.
PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL
TOP: Larry Jackier speaks to the Detroit Group in the lobby of the hotel. ABOVE: Bernie Brawer of Franklin, Morris Silverman of
Farmington Hills and Bert Stein of West Bloomfield marks with youth from Detroit’s Partnership region in the Central Galilee at Timrat.
PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL
PHOTO BY DEBBIE HILL
Marta Rosenthal of Franklin holds her daughter Rachel as they watch footage of the terrorist attacks in America on a large-screen TV in the Nazareth Renaissance Hotel.
changed the agenda. “It was no longer celebratory; it was more somber.”
After the event, the Detroiters headed to the Renaissance Hotel in Nazareth, an Arab-run hotel that had been shuttered but was opened just for the mission-goers.
“We walked into the lobby and saw they had wheeled out large-screen TVs. Many of us had not seen one image the entire day,” Davidoff said. “As we watched the coverage, many of our delegation became emotionally overwhelmed. Seeing the towers falling was a horrific moment.”
Photographer Debbie Hall captured the horror the delegation felt with a photo of Rachel Rosenthal “crying my eyes out on my mom’s shoulder,” she said.
Kirsbaum said, “I didn’t understand the immensity of the attacks until we got back to the hotel. It was such a horrible thing to see. I was wrapped up in the emotions but trying to do my job as a reporter. It was a pretty sleepless evening.”
Kirsbaum recalls that the next morning, their first stop was at a school Detroit had been supporting that had been attacked earlier that year. “There were guards everywhere. We walked into the courtyard and saw an Israeli flag and an American flag, both flying half-staff. Kids were lined up holding flowers for us. Before we even took the tour, they planted a tree for us in a moving ceremony.
“All the children had written us notes and drew us pictures,” he added. “I took one with me and still have it. It says, ‘I am very sorri’ with a pencil drawing of planes crashing into the building. It was really touching.”
Rachel Rosenthal said that their “friends in Israel were there for us. A lot of that day was a bit of blur … Then I remember getting on the bus and trying to get back home.”
THE RETURN HOME
Mission-goers spent the next several days in Jerusalem while the mission leaders worked the phones, trying to arrange a flight home. “We called Sen. Carl Levin to help us,” Jackier recalled.
An Israeli in New York on 9-11 — A Firsthand Account
Yoav Raban was nearly 21 on Sept. 10, 2001, on his way to Detroit for a mifgash, exchange visit, following a 10-day Hillel of Metro Detroit Community Birthright trip in Israel. He had been selected as one of six Israelis from Michigan’s Partnership Region to join the Birthright trip.
He had arrived in New York two weeks prior to his flight to Detroit, scheduled for Sept. 11, in order to meet friends and tour the city. “On the morning of Sept. 10, I wanted to say goodbye to the city and decided the best way to do that would be to go on top of the Observation Deck of the World Trade Center for one last scenic view of the city,” he said. He was with his dad, who was also making his way to Detroit for a business meeting, when they arrived at LaGuardia airport on Yoav on Sept. 11. “We were not allowed the World Trade Center to go in. We were told there was observation a bomb threat, something we deck, Sept. were very used to from back 10, 2001. home when there were daily suicide bombings, and so the notion of a bomb threat was an everyday thing for us. “We thought we would wait outside for a bit, and they will surely clear the bomb threat and allow us back in just like they do in Israel,” he continued. “But after a couple of hours, we were told that all flights were canceled, and we should go back to the city.”
Neither Yoav nor his father had a cell phone. They began to make their way back to the city, clueless as to what had happened. “We could see the smoke all the way from Queens, but we had no idea what we were looking at.”
After hours of looking for a bus, they made it back to their uncle’s hotel room, with whom they had been staying. It was already late evening. “When he opened the door for us, he was pale, as if he had seen a couple of ghosts,” he said.
“We asked him in such a naive manner, ‘What is going on in the city today? It’s crazier than ever out there,’” Yoav continued. “He was absolutely shocked and in total disbelief, asking us if we really had no idea what was going on. He immediately took us in front of
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the TV screen and nearly 11 hours after the first plane hit, we finally saw what the entire world had already known and seen time and time again, all while we were just a few miles away from where it all happened.”
IN HIS OWN WORDS
Yoav said: “After that, everything changed. I kept a copy of the NY Times that was placed outside the door the following morning. And I did what every Israeli does the day after a terror attack, I went outside, back on the streets. And maybe that is the memory that burns brightest for me, New York City itself, the day after. One of the most vibrant cities in world, of constant noise, of nonstop hustle and bustle, suddenly silent, empty, gloomy — a big cloud of dust covering the streets and a strong smell of smoke and devastation.
“I remember walking by the fire stations, seeing the memorial candles that were already placed outside. A city full of grief. It felt as if I was walking in the streets of Tel Aviv during Yom Kippur. I was simply incapable at that time to even begin to process the magnitude of the historical tragic event that I was a part of. It was all so surreal. “We in Israel, we are used to the notion of, ‘This could have been you.’ Many of us will endure that sense at least a few times during our lives here. We get it during our mandatory Army service, during the many wars that even someone my age has already been through. And it was definitely a repeating notion during 2001, in the midst of the Second Intifada. Back then, ‘It could have been you’ was just a bus ride away, a visit to a restaurant or a shopping center or a night out at the bar or at the dance club. “And, so, for me, to suddenly find myself an ocean away in one of the liveliest and vibrant cities in the world and still get hit by the same notion of ‘this could have been me,’ it made my stomach turn.”
Yoav Raban MEETING THE DETROIT DELEGATION AT JFK
A few days following the attacks, while stuck in New York without any idea of what to do next, Yoav received a message from Hillel’s Miriam Starkman that Federation had arranged a bus to Detroit. He and his dad joined the Detroit delegation at JFK.
“The inspiring and emotional experience of the bus ride cemented my relationship with our Detroit Jewish community,” said Raban, who is now director of Grants and Relations in the Israel & Overseas Department of Federation. “It made it my bashert and created one of my most meaningful and important life-changing and lifelong connections.
“I have been fortunate that through my connection with the Detroit Jewish community and our Partnership Region relationship, that I have had the opportunity to get back to Detroit every year since 2001 until the recent COVID crisis, which ended my consecutive streak at 18 years,” he continued.
“About three years ago, I felt that I finally got some closure for my personal journey when I went back again to visit the new World Trade Center Tower and was able to get back on top of the new observation deck, which now also serves as a beautiful memorial tribute.
“I felt more at peace after that, feeling the strength and spirit of the human creation and the passion of life and how it will always triumph over darkness and the desire for destruction.”
Working with the government and El Al, whose reputation for security was beyond reproach, Sherman was able to secure a plane for Friday morning. There was an El Al plane bringing Israelis who had family that perished in the towers to New York. Levin was able to get them on that jet.
“It was quite an undertaking,” Sherman said. “On Thursday morning, I told people to be ready at a moment’s notice. I told them at 6 to get on the bus by 8 p.m. They spent Thursday night at the airport, but nobody complained.”
Sherman waited for the second plane before leaving Israel. “Everything happened so fast,” she said. “I never saw a TV when I was there — never had the time. I didn’t see what happened until I got back.”
Stein was one of the people waiting at the airport. “I promised my wife I would come home on that first flight,” he said. “At one point, Larry Jackier, who was a fabulous leader, asked if we were willing to sleep in the airport. We stayed in the airport for about 30 hours. I met so many people I didn’t know. It was as different a night as I can ever remember.”
Nineteen of the Detroit delegation were on that plane, the first international flight to arrive in the U.S. after 9-11. The rest stayed until after Shabbat.
“When we landed, JFK was empty,” Jackier said. “You could still see the smoke.”
Marta Rosenthal said it was “eerie — kind of spooky. It was like they had done a spring cleaning. Jetways were against the buildings. We were at customs with the Israeli families. I asked one of the agents, ‘Are we really the first?’ She said absolutely. We hadn’t seen a soul.”
Davidoff said it was like being in a ghost town. “They had just started domestic flights. Should we wait or drive? We took a vote and decided we should drive. I called Federation and told them we needed a bus, and a bus appeared.”
They were joined by a young Israeli from the Partnership Region and his father, who were also trying to make their way to Detroit (see sidebar).
On the drive home, the bus made a stop at a 7-11 in Pennsylvania and they bought bread, candles and vodka and made Shabbos, Stein said. “It was so emotional for us to share a Shabbos after what we had been through and what we had seen. It is a lasting memory for me.”
Davidoff recalls traveling across the country and seeing American flags on every single building.
“We were passing flags on cornfields,” Kirsbaum recalled.
The delegation arrived home at 5 a.m., Jackier recalls.
“Like everyone else, the first thing I did was kiss my family.”
— BERT STEIN
9-11: 20 YEARS LATER continued from page 17
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