Jewish memorial service honors 9/11 victims

With prayers, speeches and music, a group of Jewish men and women led a remembrance of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on Tuesday, the day in the Hebrew calendar corresponding to the attacks’ fourth anniversary.

The 30 mostly Orthodox Jews from Baruch College and Chabad of Downtown NYC used the memorial service to offer a hopeful message: Goodness could result, and has resulted, from the evil witnessed that day, from people giving blood to a renewal of charity work.

Such memorials “serve as inspiration to us, that we should never forget,” said Michael Gutmann, a 20-year-old Baruch student.

The group gathered next to the family viewing area at the World Trade Center site, briefly entering a fenced-off area to read Psalm 23 of the Bible.

It’s unknown how many of the 2001 attack victims were Jewish; estimates vary from 200 to more than 400 people. But event organizers said the remembrance was for all of the victims of that day.

Chabad is an orthodox Jewish movement with a tradition of outreach. The groups that organized Tuesday’s memorial hope to make it an annual tradition.

One special guest Tuesday was Rabbi Yossie Nemes, who hails from the New Orleans area and has been staying in New York temporarily. Nemes and his family helped tourists find their way, even giving lodging to some, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the Gulf Coast.

After blowing into a shofar, a ram’s horn used as a musical instrument in traditional Jewish events, Nemes said the compassion and camaraderie he witnessed among neighbors, friends and strangers after the hurricane was similar to what the world saw after the 2001 attacks.

“For a month now, we have been all helping each other, all of God’s children,” Nemes said.