UWS 9/11 VICTIM LAID TO REST

I never officially knew Nancy Morgenstern, although chances are we’d met. We had many mutual friends and ran in similar circles on the Upper West Side--I was friendly with her roommate.

Because I couldn't place name to face to workplace for most of my close friends, let alone for people I didn't know, on 9/11, the name Cantor Fitzgerald didn’t ring any personal bells for me. But in Nancy's Upper West Side apartment, five blocks and two avenues from my own building, there were bells ringing everywhere--as her roommates fielded desperate phonecalls from Nancy’s family.

When I received word that my friend’s roommate was missing, I felt my stomach drop; I still couldn't match a face to the name, but I knew that Nancy was our representative on that terrible day: a woman with a career, an athlete with an active social network, a committed Jewish Upper West Sider on the scene.

And then, like so many others, she was just missing. In absence of an official confirmation of Nancy’s death, her family mourned, but only off-the-record. For more than three years, there was no burial, no shiva.

This week, after a recent “official” identification of her DNA, the family went ahead with the burial in Beit Shemesh, Israel.

This is the Ha’aretz article about the funeral.

And this is the NY Times piece about Nancy.

May Nancy's memory be for a blessing, and may her family finally know peace.

(Hat tip: IsraellyCool)

UWS 9/11 VICTIM LAID TO REST

I never officially knew Nancy Morgenstern, although chances are we’d met. We had many mutual friends and ran in similar circles on the Upper West Side--I was friendly with her roommate.

Because I couldn't place name to face to workplace for most of my close friends, let alone for people I didn't know, on 9/11, the name Cantor Fitzgerald didn’t ring any personal bells for me. But in Nancy's Upper West Side apartment, five blocks and two avenues from my own building, there were bells ringing everywhere--as her roommates fielded desperate phonecalls from Nancy’s family.

When I received word that my friend’s roommate was missing, I felt my stomach drop; I still couldn't match a face to the name, but I knew that Nancy was our representative on that terrible day: a woman with a career, an athlete with an active social network, a committed Jewish Upper West Sider on the scene.

And then, like so many others, she was just missing. In absence of an official confirmation of Nancy’s death, her family mourned, but only off-the-record. For more than three years, there was no burial, no shiva.

This week, after a recent “official” identification of her DNA, the family went ahead with the burial in Beit Shemesh, Israel.

This is the Ha’aretz article about the funeral.

And this is the NY Times piece about Nancy.

May Nancy's memory be for a blessing, and may her family finally know peace.

(Hat tip: IsraellyCool)