In memory of the victims of terror

by Seamus McGraw Courtesy of The Forward United Airlines Flight 93 from Newark was one of the four jumbo jets hijacked September 11, -the only one that didn't hit its target. Instead, it crashed into the ground in western Pennsylvania, short of its murderous flight path toward Washington, D.C. Based on a last-minute cell-phone conversation between Glick and his wife, Lyzbeth, at home in West Milford, N.J., investigators believe that Glick and other passengers, aware of the attacks that leveled the World Trade Center and the Pentagon minutes before, decided to battle the hijackers. In so doing, they speeded the end of their own lives, but saved countless others. His last words to his wife were: "We've decided. We're going to do it." Glick, a sales manager for a technology firm, told his wife that he and three other passengers, Mark Bingham, Todd Beamer and Tom Burnett, were planning to rush the hijackers. He told Lyzbeth to be strong, for herself and for their baby daughter, Emerson. Quiet leadership was Glick's most defining characteristic. He showed it when he was a freshman wrestler at Saddle River Day School. The moment Glick walked into the school, other students were drawn to him. Glick showed it in 1991, when he spent 10 months in Israel performing community service, studying Hebrew and honing his leadership skills. A high school friend, Mr. Stein, reminisced. "Even back in high school, that dude was unstoppable. Whatever happened on that plane, he had the guts and determination. He was physically imposing, standing just over six feet, with immense physical strength and the mental acuity to temper it." His death on Flight 93 is one of the few moments of glory in the horrific events of September 11. Glick joins a line of courageous Jewish heroes from the bold Maccabbees to Mordechai Anielewicz, who led the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, and Hannah Senesh who parachuted into Nazi Europe and was executed by the Germans. Glick, Beamer, Bingham and Burnett may receive the Congressional Medal of Freedom, the highest award for valor that can be bestowed on a civilian.

By Adam Dickter Courtesy of The Jewish Week For more than two hours at a packed Midtown synagogue, fellow firefighters and relatives praised David Weiss, one of 300 firefighters who perished at the World Trade Center. On firefighter George Healy's first night on the job at Rescue 1, an elite unit of the New York Fire Department, he was assigned to a long vigil at a Madison Avenue building whose facade had collapsed. Finally back at the station, Healy was approached by a fellow fireman, who recognizing he was tired, offered to finish his shift for him. Healy was reluctant, but David Weiss insisted, citing his seniority. When Healy returned to the station, he learned that Weiss, too, was a rookie, and had no authority to send him home! The Ner Tamid Society, the fraternal organization for Jewish fire personnel, has 400 Jewish firefighters among New York's Bravest. Other missing members of the society include Alan Feinberg of Engine Co. 54 in Midtown and Steve Belson of Battalion 7, also in Manhattan. Weiss, 41, a former ironworker and volunteer with the Freeport, L.I. fire department, had been decorated by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in October 1997 for rescuing a man who had driven his car into the East River. Weiss was off duty at the time and driving overhead on the East River Drive when he saw the accident, stopped his car, climbed down to the pier and dove into the water. During his 12-year career, Weiss was awarded a Class 2 service rating and received two unit citations. "He lived for this," said close friend and colleague Thor Johansen. "He was always ready, unstoppable. The salt of the earth. He had knowledge, experience and determination." Weiss is survived by his wife, Carla, and two teenaged children, Michael and Elissa. Mayor Giuliani said Weiss and his fellow firefighters died while executing a most heroic and effective rescue, having evacuated some 25,000 people from the Twin Towers before they collapsed. "They died defending freedom," the mayor said, "like the sailors at Pearl Harbor or the Marines at Iwo Jima. Who knows what kind of casualties we could have had if not for David Weiss and his brother firefighters?"