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Terror On the 44th Floor By Helen Zegerman Schwimmer When you’re running for your life, you can’t let flimsy designer heels stand in your way, thought Agnes Ford, hurrying past several pairs of abandoned shoes as she descended the stairwell of Tower Two of the World Trade Center, escaping a terrorist attack for the second time in her life. Tuesday, Sept. 11th had begun like a typical work day for the Vice President in charge of contracts at Guy Carpenter Reinsurance Brokers, which occupies floors 49 -54 of Tower Two. Entering the building at 8:30 a.m., Agnes headed for the bank of elevators. “There are normally 4 elevators which service my area but only two were working. Since the other two were under maintenance, there was a long wait as my other co-workers continued to arrive. We took the elevator to the 44th floor where I then normally switch for the one that takes me to my office on the 51st floor.” That’s when normal life ended for Agnes Ford. “As I stepped out of the elevator on the 44th floor, I saw debris flying past the window.” Simultaneously, when the doors to the elevator coming from the upper floors opened, people poured out and headed for the stairwell. “We don’t know what’s going on but we’re getting out of here,” they shouted. “Don’t go down the elevator. Use the stairs.” Although eight years had passed, in that terrifying moment Agnes suddenly felt as if she was experiencing an instant replay of the 1993 attack on the WTC. So while her colleagues hesitated, she knew she had to get out of the building and immediately headed for the stairwell. The others followed. As the most decisive and the tallest, Agnes found herself the leader once again, cautioning members of her group not to panic or try to push ahead. They followed her down, not knowing that the debris they had just seen was caused by a plane ramming into Tower One. “In ’93 we walked down in total darkness and silence but this time everything worked. The stairwells were well lit and we heard continuous announcements over the public address system directing us to proceed to the street.” When they got to the 5th floor, “the building suddenly moved.” The second plane had just exploded into Tower Two. Gripped with fear, their pace quickened and they reached street level within minutes, still totally unaware of what had happened to their building. Born and bred in Brooklyn, the familiar terrain of the city suddenly turned treacherous as Agnes began to navigate the streets in an attempt to get home. Headed in the direction of the Brooklyn Bridge, she became the victim of a hit and run as a bicycle knocked her over then continued to race down the street. Bruised, she made her way toward the bridge only to find it engulfed in smoke. As she turned back, she stared in disbelief as she saw Tower Two crumble. “We thought it was built to withstand anything. This was not supposed to happen.” From the radios on the street blaring the news reports she finally learned the extent of the catastrophe. Then, passing an appliance store, she stopped to watch the horrific scenes on the television sets in the store window. As she continued northward, she met a group at 23rd street and 5th Avenue who worked in building 7, a 43 story complex, who had watched in shock as the planes hit the twin towers. They also described seeing people jumping out of the buildings. “Whenever we heard planes overhead we got very nervous because we didn’t know whose planes they were.” When Agnes heard that the A and F trains were still operating, she headed for 34th and 6th Avenue. The conversations she heard on the street called for retaliation. “Not out of revenge,” she emphasized, “but to show that we’re strong and that you can’t attack the United States of America.” The general feeling was that if Osama bin Laden was responsible, “we have to get him and we can’t let this drag on like the ’93 bombing trial.” Once safely home, Agnes reflected on an ominous conversation she had with me just three days earlier. As the Special Events Coordinator for MATCKH, Mothers Against Teaching Children To Kill & Hate, I had contacted her about participating in our Oct. 4th “Kids For Peace” rally in Washington, D.C. I shared with Agnes, a fellow Brooklyn College alum, my fear that the suicide bombers who were terrorizing the Middle East ultimately put the entire world in jeopardy. It was only a matter of time, I warned, before they exported their hatred and started blowing themselves up in our country. She found it hard to believe. On September 11th, for Agnes and America, the unthinkable had become a reality. Epilogue: Among the 298 people killed at the World Trade Center who worked with Agnes was the company nurse, Lydia, who was looking forward to her wedding day. The other surviving employees of Marsh McLennan-Guy Carpenter Reinsurance Brokers have been scattered throughout the tri-state area. In each of their New York, New Jersey and Connecticut locations a memorial has been erected to honor the dead with the names of the victims inscribed in stone and lucite. No mention is made of how they died or who killed them. Like The Stars of The Heavens Table of Contents
I. I Look Taller In The Jewish Press
Where’s Helen? Faithful readers have found me in the pages of the Jewish Press Newspaper where my columns about the extraordinary achievements of giants in the field of medicine, the arts, education, politics and religion have dramatically enhanced my own modest stature.
The Yale 5: Divinity vs. Diversity
The enforced co-ed living policy at Yale University forced observant Jewish students to choose sides, as well as floors and rooms as the P-C versus G-D controversy heated up in New Haven.
II. My Stay-at-home Mom and The First Jewish Princess
Whether she was squeezing carrot juice by hand or schlepping laundry up three flights of stairs, my mother’s devotion to the care and feeding of her family was passed down via her DNA from an admirable ancestry, the ancient feminists who continue to provide the role models that inform and guide the lives of modern Jewish women.
A Taste of Shabbos
The night the rabbi invited me to his home for dinner with his wife and their eight children I discovered that Shabbos was more than just chicken soup, an “aha” moment that led to a seismic shift in the direction of my life.
Fool Proof Parve Rugelach: The Recipe
In The Merit Of Righteous Women
Kugel and kishke rounded out an unusual Thanksgiving feast as we celebrated the heroism of the interracial group, Mothers To Mothers.
Fran Sheldon: The World Is Her Stage
Who could have predicted that the young girl who once dreamt of a life on the stage would one day reach an audience that numbered in the millions as she anchored the Editor’s Desk at 1010 WINS Radio.
Livia Bitton-Jackson: Recipient of the Emunah Jewish Heritage Award
The award-winning author, historian and Professor of Judaic Studies, who grew up without a formal Jewish education, was thirteen years old when her comfortable life and her Judaism were forever changed the day she and her family were sent to Auschwitz.
Sharsheret: The Missing Link
When Rochelle Shoretz found “a lump” she also discovered that the unique needs of young Jewish women with breast cancer was a neglected area in the realm of cancer support so she founded Sharsheret to provide the missing link that would unite and strengthen all Jewish women.
Molly Finkel: A Lady of Firsts
The young émigré helped found the powerful women’s organization Emunah, built the first Jewish hospital in Kansas City, Missouri and became the matriarch of a distinguished American family
Where Have You Come From and Where Are You Going?
A luxury hotel in Manhattan seemed like an incongruous setting for discussing the finer points of Halacha and yet here we were, linen napkins on our laps and poached salmon on our plates, debating our 3000 year old legacy at the beginning of the 21st century.
1V. The Chicken Farm, the Doug-lass and the Blind Date
Luck? Fate? Destiny? Where Jews are concerned no matter what happens it’s always bashert.
The Graduate
The first child born in America to an immigrant family whose personal history was marked by pogroms, labor camps and displaced persons camps has grown up to become a man who has dedicated his life to saving lives.
The Saving Remnant
After returning back home from a voyage of discovery to my birthplace, a Benedictine monastery in Germany, I made a life altering discovery at the first International Displaced Person’s Conference in Washington, D.C.
The Jews of St. Ottilien
Like a pebble thrown into the water that creates ripples far beyond what the eye can see, two young GIs poured out their hearts in a letter to the American people that made it all the way to President Truman’s desk and continues to make waves sixty years later.
I Did Not Forget You
A Holocaust Memorial Park grows in Brooklyn where the poignant words of Simon Wiesenthal are inscribed in stone: "I believe in God and the world to come. When each of us comes before the six million we will be asked what we did with our lives. One will say he became a watchmaker and another will say that he became a tailor. But I will be able to say I did not forget you."
L’Chaim
In Atlanta we attended the wedding made possible by the actions of a courageous gentile seventy years earlier and back in Brooklyn we honored the memory of Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese embassador whose heroic actions during the Holocaust were ultimately responsible for many Jewish weddings.
Miracle at Kovno
When Boys Town of Jerusalem honored the memory of Jan Zwartendijk, the Dutch Consul in Lithuania during WWII whose signature on a piece of paper helped rescue a nation on the brink of extinction, his son was overwhelmed with emotion when he finally shook hands with the survivors his father had saved.
The Heroes Among Us
Look beyond the gray, thinning hair, the wrinkled skin and the slightly stooped gait and you will discover you are in the presence of a hero, a fearless member of the Bielski partisan brigade who once took on the most evil empire and won.
Into The Arms of Strangers: A Daughter’s Story
The discovery of a cache of her mother’s letters led Deborah Oppenheimer to create a documentary that became a loving tribute to all of the devoted Jewish mothers and fathers who made the ultimate sacrifice when they saved their children by sending them “Into The Arms of Strangers.”
In Tune With The Melody of Life
Jack Friedman, the cantor who retained his religion and his voice after Auschwitz, merited to celebrate an illustrious forty-five year career in the presence of his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
V. The Philadelphia Story
When I put my husband through medical school, working as a jack-of-all-trades designing newspaper and magazine ads as well as writing and producing radio and television commercials, I even hired him to do the voice over in a radio spot I created for a bank, casting him in the role of a medical student who needed a loan.
Moses Judah Folkman, M.D. : The Rabbi-like Doctor
Moses Judah Folkman, the little boy who aspired to be a doctor, would ultimately fulfill his father’s mandate to be a credit to his people, but like his rabbinical namesake, Dr. Folkman’s forty-year trek through the medical frontier was fraught with obstacles.
VI. Of Moose and Phish
An isolated Air Force Base in caribou country, the innovative rock band Phish and the author of a revealing book about Orthodox women. What could they all possibly have in common?
Ladies Who Lunch
Author Rivka Zakutinsky invites you to pull up a chair “Around Sarah’s Table” and be inspired by the women who gather each Tuesday to celebrate the ties that bind in her intimate, realistic glimpse into the diverse and complex lives of these modern ultra Orthodox women.
The Eternal Jewish Pilot Light
One of the compelling stories in Barbara Kessel’s book, Suddenly Jewish: Jews Raised As Gentiles Discover Their Jewish Roots, is about a man who was told by the Cardinal, just as he was about to take his vows for the priesthood, that his mother was really Jewish.
The Mysterious Profession of Rochelle Krich
The author, whose Judaism informs her life and her novels, puts the medical profession under her microscope as a scandal shakes a fertility clinic in the whodunit, Fertile Ground.
VII. Leave Brooklyn? Fuggedaboudit.
A medical practice in Brooklyn was not my husband’s first choice, but something clicked from the moment he walked into the office of Dr. Leonard Sacharow and the result was a partnership that lasted eighteen years.
Dr. Richard Golinko: A Human Touch to the Cutting Edge
The giant stethoscope, a gift from his daughters that hangs in the office of this renowned cardiologist, is an appropriate symbol for the larger-than-life accomplishments of the man who has repaired the tiniest parts of the tiniest hearts.
The Old Stone House
Lexington and Concord are familiar names when it comes to the Revolutionary War but few people are aware that the Battle of Brooklyn was the first, largest and most crucial battle fought between the British Army and the newly formed army of the United States of America led by heroes like Colonel Solomon Bush.
VIII. The British Invade Brooklyn Again!
This time the Brits, armed with video cams and boom mikes, were conquered by a writer brandishing a pen and a rebbetzin who could wield a cleaver in the kitchen as expertly as she gave a lesson in Torah study.
The Roots of Success
Midwood High School's thirteen semi-finalists in the nationwide Westinghouse Science Talent Search were determined to conquer disease, save the environment and cure cancer, fulfilling the hopes of generations who dared to share their dreams with them.
Angels of Mercy
Not all angels commute via their wings as Margie Halbfinger found out that fateful day her angels descended from the B-36 and came to her rescue on a stormy Brooklyn street.
Dr. Leonard Sacharow: The Gentle Giant
A small basket filled with lollipops sat on the synagogue seat of a very large man, placed there by his family in memory of a man who kept candy in his tallis bag to give to the little children on Shabbos so the Torah would taste sweet.
IX. Converts, Baal Teshuvahs and My Mid-Life Spiritual Awakening
I have met Orthodox Jews who were brought up as devout Christians, Christians who discovered they were really Jews, and lost Jews who were gradually finding their way home, but my own mid-life spiritual awakening ultimately led me to the East, not to a secluded mountaintop but to a crowded wall.
Being And Becoming In Jerusalem
Chaya, the name I was given at birth, was eventually replaced by Helen, a name that was more appropriate for an American child. After searching for almost fifty years, I finally found Chaya during my sojourn with Isralight in Jerusalem.
Rabbi Asher Wade: Following The Script of Life
When scholar, linguist and Methodist pastor Asher Wade and his German-born wife reached the conclusion that Torah Judaism fulfilled all the intellectual, academic, spiritual and emotional truths for which they had been searching, their decision to convert culminated with their aliyah to Israel.
The Ultimate Makeover
Introducing Rachel Factor, the Japanese-American actress, singer and dancer who traded in her flashy Rockette costume for a modest dress and a kosher wig and became a JAP and proud of it.
Embracing The Gifts of a Stranger
Ahuvah Gray, who describes herself as an African-American with a Jewish neshama, has amassed an impressive itinerary touching down and touching Jewish audiences from Australia to Hong Kong.
More Than The Eye Can See: Lieba’s Story
Shortly after Marcia Schwartz lost her eyesight she heard the words, “Good Shabbos,” and it was like a switch igniting a powerful light that would ultimately guide her back to the religion she had turned her back on forty years earlier.
Integrating Torah With Technology: A Success Story
Once golden on Wall Street, the day Akiva Shapiro lost it all was the beginning of the rest of his life. This is the remarkable saga of a computer mogul, totally ignorant about Judaism, who created a life and a company built on Torah values.
A Wedding In Montreal
As I watched the wedding scene unfold before me I marveled at the complex plot twists and miraculous sequence of events that ultimately reunited me with my relatives in Canada after twenty-five years.
When I Came Home I Really Came Home
During Machon Chana’s summer torah study program for women I found myself sitting around a blazing campfire listening to a young rabbi share the spellbinding story of his transformation from a follower of the Grateful Dead to a follower of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
X. Israel, M.A.T.C.K.H. and 9/11
M.A.T.C.K.H., Mothers Against Teaching Children To Kill and Hate, founded by Molly Resnick, planned to hold a massive “Kids For Peace” rally on Oct. 4th in Washington, D.C. It never took place because the terrorists who had been indoctrinated to hate and kill fulfilled their mission on Sept. 11, 2001.
Terror On The 44th Floor
When you’re running for your life you can’t let flimsy designer heels stand in your way thought Agnes Ford, hurrying past several pairs of abandoned shoes as she descended the stairwell and exited Tower Two, surviving a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center for the second time in her life.
Rabbi, Wife, Twins Miraculously Survive WTC Attack To Light Menorah Of Hope
Desperately running toward their van, each clutching a child, the rabbi and his wife were overwhelmed by fear as fragments of steel rained down on them and the air became so thick with white ash they felt it was worse than the plague that had descended on Egypt.
Cookies Fresh From The Ohel
When Levana Kirschenbaum decided to raise money for the victims of terror in Israel by recruiting an army of volunteers to help her bake and sell one million chocolate chip cookies, any ordinary mortal might have found this kind of monster-sized order daunting, but for the master chef who began her career with a specialty bakery, raising dough came naturally.
XI. The Refugee Boat And The Luxury Liner
For Jews, travel has always been more than just an excuse to visit the trendiest new vacation spot or hike up a mountain to be wowed by the view. There’s always a moral to our story as well as our trip.
This Is Not Your Mother’s Borsht Belt
During my summer in the Catskills I stumbled upon the ultimate Jewish melting pot, the local Wal-Mart where Jews sporting every type of head covering, skirt length and stocking configuration mingled amiably with each other among the shmattes and the potted plants.
“We Will Have Been Like Dreamers”
We boarded our bulletproof bus and set out for the first stop on our solidarity mission to Israel, the Park Hotel in Netanya, site of the Passover massacre. Our last stop was Hebron the site the burial plot our patriarch Abraham purchased over 3000 years ago. In between we visited the beleaguered communities in Gaza and the West Bank. Not your typical tourist vacation.
Jay Ipson: The Southern Gentleman With the Yiddishe Neshama
When we had decided to stop in Richmond to break up the long drive back to Brooklyn, we never suspected our spur-of-the moment decision would reunite Jay Ipson founder and director of the Virginia Holocaust Museum with his long lost relatives in Canada.
Not Only To Cure But To Care
On the 800th anniversary of Maimonides death my husband and I traveled to Tiberius, Israel to attend The First International Maimonides Conference on Medicine and Ethics and explore the ancient teachings of one of the greatest biblical scholars, physicians and philosophers who had ever lived.
We’re Not In Brooklyn Anymore
Our first trip West was also our first encounter with a kosher bus tour, a sort of Boro Park meets the National Parks scenario with black hats and designer bags giving way to baseball caps and fanny packs as thirty-five strangers quickly shed their city slicker selves and morphed into a group of hardy adventurers.
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