story9114.xml
Title
story9114.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-03-01
911DA Story: Story
On 11 September I was at home in Jerusalem, when I received a telephone call from one of my sons who is a newspaper reporter. He related that a plane had crashed into the WTC. Several minutes later television programming was interrupted by a news broadcast with a live pick-up from NY. (I knew the WTC quite well. Only a month before I had used the PATH terminal.) It was hours before regular TV broadcasts would be resumed.
I worked in disaster response for many years. I picked up the telephone and contacted a friend in Brooklyn, a chaplain for NYPD. He spoke from his mobile phone. He was caught in traffic on the Upper Giwanis. That conversation was the last that I would have with New York for about 24 hours. A busy signal was received. Lines were down and / or overladed.
On Thursday my friend asked that I come to New York to aid Jewish organizations after the disaster. One of those organizations would fund the trip. The first flights from Israel to New York left on Saturday night, but there was no space available. I contacted a friend at Royal Jordanian Airlines. He called El Al and made a reservation for me. (I knew that the Israeli carrier would not turn down their Jordanian counterpart.) I was off to New York.
I worked in disaster response for many years. I picked up the telephone and contacted a friend in Brooklyn, a chaplain for NYPD. He spoke from his mobile phone. He was caught in traffic on the Upper Giwanis. That conversation was the last that I would have with New York for about 24 hours. A busy signal was received. Lines were down and / or overladed.
On Thursday my friend asked that I come to New York to aid Jewish organizations after the disaster. One of those organizations would fund the trip. The first flights from Israel to New York left on Saturday night, but there was no space available. I contacted a friend at Royal Jordanian Airlines. He called El Al and made a reservation for me. (I knew that the Israeli carrier would not turn down their Jordanian counterpart.) I was off to New York.
Collection
Citation
“story9114.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed December 18, 2025, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/14526.