September 11^th, 2001.

September 11^th, 2001 the world changed.  Four planes and over 3,000 perished for no reason except hate.  I, as well as every member of my generation lost my innocence on September 11^th, 2001.  I didn’t lose anyone I knew but over 3,000 did.  I saw the faces of fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, cousins, grandparents, grandchildren, crying for their loved ones, holding out hope for information that their loved one was somehow alive.  Their tears burned into my memory never to be healed. 

As I try to recall the events of September 11^th, 2001 as well as the following days I can’t help but to recall everything from these days.  At around 9:20 I was sitting in Mrs. Wagner’s office waiting to speak with the Principal, Mr. Blumenstein about possibly setting up an AIPAC chapter in my school, when a student came in and said “Another plane just hit the twin towers.”  “Another one,” I said when I was told that I should go to class.  Upon entering the classroom my teacher told us (the class) that if we have anybody that we might have known that we can go call them.  So I did just that, but not before going to my car to listen to the news, when I heard of a third plane just hitting the Pentagon.  I thought that surely World War Three had begun, and I soon would be seeing unimaginable horrors.  I was frantically calling everyone I knew only to get a recording or a busy signal, until about 20 minutes later when I finally got through to my father who told me that he knew less than me about the situation. 

As the day progressed I was lending out my phone as I was the only one getting through to anybody due to the fact that my phone had a very good antenna.  Between 2^nd and 3^rd periods the principal put the radio over the loudspeaker, and during this time everyone in the school heard of the towers collapse.  During 4^th period I actually saw video of the 2^nd plane hitting as well as the towers collapsing, and the only words out my mouth for the next couple of minutes were “G-d save us all.” 

At about 1:15 I had an Israel Guidance meeting scheduled, the meeting was for obvious reasons rescheduled.  I then went home and sat in my basement watching TV for the next 3 hours maybe 4 I don’t remember much until Maariv that evening where my shul was filled to capacity, and from about 8:15 until 9 we said tehilim.  Upon my arrival home I proceeded to drape my American Flag over the railing of the porch of my house as well as my Israeli flag.  Later that night I spoke to my friend Shani.  All I can remember from that conversation is crying on both ends of the phone as we both lost it.  Each of us had stayed strong the entire day and needed to breathe.  I eventually went to sleep that night, not before writing e-mail’s to my friends as well as making sure that my friends were okay.

            The next day my school was canceled.  I had planned on just sitting and watching the news all day, but fate decided against it.  I had been in constant contact with my friend Shani, and I decided that I would go visit her in her school but my parents said no.  Only 5 minutes later my brother got a call from a friend asking him if he wanted to go to the city to volunteer.  My brother said yes and I immediately called my parents and after some bargaining I was allowed to go.  We drove to Queens College to try and persuade more people to come with us as well as to pick up a few more people who had said they would volunteer with us. 

We then proceeded to take a subway into Penn Station.  From there we walked to Chelsea Piers where we sat outside for over Two hours waiting to be asked to volunteer.  As we were sitting there I can remember seeing the hundreds of trucks going down the West Side Highway to and from Ground Zero.  I remember seeing what some of those trucks were bringing back, one of those sights stuck in my mind.  It looked like a bus that had been crushed with just the wheel without any tire or any brakes was on the street.  When I said “That’s a bus,” I was corrected by someone who said “that’s an ambulance,” and then the sound of the wheel rolling along the asphalt became apparent as it carved into the street, and the ash of the buildings flew off of it. 

About an hour after that a Buddhist Monk was carrying boxes of cans of coca-cola.  Me, a Jew, and an African American helped this Buddhist Monk wearing his traditional clothes to the drop-off point.  About 20 minutes later my brother and his friends left to see if maybe they can get in to volunteer through the drop-off point.  I got a call about 30 seconds later saying that I should go to that spot and volunteer.  I went in and proceeded to pack up garbage bags, toilet paper and other various items like that.  About an hour later we were gathered on the basketball courts and told that our services would no longer be needed there and were told that at the Jacob Javits Center we may be able to get work volunteering.

            On our way there we walked with a group of people one whose name was Mike the others I do not remember, and I will tell you later why I remember Mike.  On our way there we saw an army helicopter landing on a helipad usually used by civilian aircraft.  We did pass one particularly amusing sight though it was a traffic light dangling from a wire.  The reason it was funny is the story that was told to us by the cop who had witnessed it.  He told us that a news truck had forgotten to lower its satellite dish, and upon passing through the intersection knocked out the light.  The cop had proceeded to write a ticket unable to control his laughter.  It was then I thought that we will get through this.

            About 2 minutes later we got to the Jacob Javits Center where there was a line around the corner for volunteers to sign up at.  We were not able to do much by signing up, as the list was almost a full notebook long.  We did however, decide to wait around and see what would happen.  For over 3 hours we sat on the sidewalk while people came and joined us.  One person was a freelance photographer from Staten Island who used a longboard as a method of transportation.  Another was a Hatzloah member from Queens who helped us find a pizza store to deliver to us.  Over the three hours we talked about everything imaginable.  At one point I saw people carrying American flags around.  When I asked where I can buy one the lady told me that they are free and proceeded to give me one, even though I told her she didn’t have to.  At about 9 o’ clock a shipment of supplies came in, and our group happened to be at the right place at the right time.  We then proceeded to pile up these new supplies in the parking lot across the street from the Jacob Javits Center. 

            After we finished with the piling up of supplies we called it a day.  On our way back to Penn Station we were stopped by two police officers who had told us that there was a bomb scare at the Empire State Building, now the tallest building in NY.  While we sat waiting for the all clear sign someone said “no one thought that the Twin Towers would collapse,” it was then that I proceeded to call all my friends and told them that I was okay.  One of my friends became hysterical as she cried out of fear that I may be hurt, and at one point I thought I might be when I saw all the police cars speeding away from the Empire State Building.  It was during that tense moment that the all clear sign was given and that we proceeded to go home.  The rest of the way home was uneventful.  One thing I do remember is the song that was playing in the car as my brother and I pulled up to our house and it was “Alive,” by POD, a song which helped many people through the tragedy.

            Thursday September 13^th, school had resumed.  The day was a day in which the Torah was read.  Afterwards the prayer for the sick was abnormally long due to all the names of people that may have still been alive in the rubble.  After davening, I proceeded to try and get a group of people to go back to the city with me to volunteer.  At one point I had at least 10 people, most of who thought the school was behind the idea and backed out once they heard the school was against it.  I still had one person that was willing to go with me and we were about to leave to volunteer against the will of both of the Principal’s when my mother called and decided to not let me go.  I was deeply affected by the lack of support I got from my school on that matter; however, I now understand their concerns.  A couple of minutes later I and my friend Mick were called into the Principal’s office where we decided to raise the American and Israeli flags.  There was one slight problem and that was there was no way getting the flag up without the use of a very high ladder.  Within half an hour a Fire truck came and did the honor of raising the flag for the first time in a long time.  It was also decided to have an assembly on the front lawn later that day where a poem would be recited and the flags of America and Israel would be raised, of which I had the honor. 

The rest of the day passed without much incident up until 8:30 when I spoke to my friend Shani who seemed to be having a hard time with what had happened.  We decided that I would travel to her for Shabbos; however my parents wished that I stayed home that weekend.  After a couple of minutes of cajoling our parents, it was decided that Shani would be coming to me for the meals and staying by my friend Deborah. 

On Friday afternoon I drove to her school to pick her up, with an American flag (the same I had gotten at the Javits Center) waving from the Sunroof of my car.  It was raining so the already sad mood was dampened further.  Upon arrival at my house we watched President Bush’s speech at Ground Zero, both of us with tears in our eyes.  The rest of the afternoon passed by pretty much uneventful, except for my blunder in forgetting to tell my Mother that Shani is a vegetarian until right before Shabbos.  Luckily my mom found something that was edible for her and according to Shani was actually good.

            Friday night was pretty normal except for Shani being at my Shabbos table and her anecdotes about her antics.  After dinner however, Shani and I went back to Deborah’s house where we were joined by my friend Ilana and her friends Lauren, Olivia and Jen.  They were in Woodmere for a NCSY Oneg.  As the night turned out, Lauren had an interesting story of an Arab family, one which her family had once been close to, suddenly and unexpectedly moved a week before September 11^th.  In fact the Mother of the Arab Family had told Lauren’s Mother that she should not go into New York City September 11^th.  The family it turned out most probably had something to do with the attacks as soon after 9/11 the FBI had been searching the family’s home.  After Lauren’s story Deborah had brought out her picture albums, or maybe it was before Lauren’s story.  Anyway there was one picture of Deborah and her friends at Chelsea Piers and they were standing in the exact spot which I had been packing up supplies only 3 days earlier.  It was then that I had pretty much lost it but somehow I maintained my composure.  Luckily for me Ilana and friends had decided to leave so I was able to show some weakness.

            The next day went on pretty much the same way as Friday night meal except that at davening Shani had sat in between my Mother and Deborah’s mother.  After lunch Shani and I had gone to my basement to talk and before long fatigue overcame the both of us and we fell asleep.  At about three o’ clock we both woke up and decided to go to the Oneg, which was down the block from me.  That was a pretty interesting place as pretty much all my female friends were there.  Although I was with Shani most of the time so it really didn’t matter much.  Somehow during the course of the day the idea came up that we would go and volunteer at Chelsea Piers that night.  While at first the idea seemed unrealistic, it slowly came into our minds that we were going to go.  When Shabbos had ended the calls were made and as it turned out Me, Shani, my friend Michael and my Brother would go and volunteer at Chelsea Piers.  Shani would be staying by me, because of the late hour that we would be coming back. 

            We caught a train to the city and before long it became apparent that without Shani at my side, I would be losing it all night long, something the heroes from Ground Zero did not need to see.  Shani and I walked hand in hand from Penn Station to Chelsea Piers, probably more out of a sense of being there for each other than anything else.  When we got there we had to wait a couple of minutes before we could go in, and volunteer but we ended up getting inside within half an hour.  At first we packed up a truck full of biohazard suits and respirators for the workers at Ground Zero.  After that we pretty much cleaned the place up, from scrubbing bathroom floors to vacuuming the carpet in the main gathering area, we cleaned. 

Afterwards we pretty much hung out waiting for something to do.  It was at that time that I bumped into Mike from September 12^th.  He had apparently waited around long enough and was sent in to work at Ground Zero.  One story which he told is burned in my mind forever.  It went like this “I pulled a baby from there…man their were day-care centers in the towers.”  I could not breathe afterwards as the shock is still in my mind.  There were volunteers from Ground Zero coming back with broken ankles, and bad backs all ready and wanting to go back to Ground Zero.  On a lighter note, there was a priest going around making sure everyone was okay and taken care of, but the highlight of the priest was when he and a Hatzloah guy started to walk and talk, and continue to make sure everyone and everything was okay.  Maybe the terrorists didn’t destroy the USA and did the exact opposite and strengthened it.

            As we walked back to Penn Station without my brother who had stayed to continue volunteering, we were greeted by an overall calmness and politeness by everyone in New York City.  We were asked to take some extra bags of bread to maybe give out to some homeless people, however, we found none, and upon our passing of the Jacob Javits Center we proceeded to ask around to see if anybody wanted, eventually a Salvation Army Food Truck accepted the bread.  While waiting for our train in Penn Station, we saw two men, covered in a white dust and who had looked worn down both physically and mentally.  We figured they were workers from Ground Zero.  We asked them if they were and they answered in the positive, we proceeded to say thank you.  As we walked away from them we could see their tired faces brighten up as they knew that they were real life heroes.