L'Chaim

Jewish World Review March 1, 2002/ 16 Adar 5762

A Bris for a 9-11 Baby


By Jonathan Mark




On Nov. 1, we published the haunting story of Andrew Zucker, a JWR reader and 9-11 victim, who, less than a month before he was to die in the Twin Towers, began an e-mail campaign calling the world's attention to the increasing danger of the Taliban. Here is the follow-up.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- THE cover of the Feb. 25 edition of People magazine featured a poignant photo of 31 widows from 9-11, and their 32 babies (including twins), that were born into this world fatherless. As JWR's Michelle Malkin writes, each of them had fathers who happily anticipated their arrival until terrorists "took daddy after daddy after daddy away."

The newest baby, born Feb. 14, too late for inclusion in People, is Jason Andrew Zucker (Yechiel Chaim Zalman ben Chaim Zalman), 7 pounds, 8 ounces, child of Erica Zucker and Andrew Zucker. Andrew, an attorney for Harris Beach on the 85th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, was helping to rescue fellow workers and went to Heaven without a trace.

"The baby and Erica are doing great, thank G-d," says Cheryl Shames, Andrew's sister, who lives in North Massapequa, L.I. "He's adorable. Jason Andrew is a big mazel tov. I've been crying a lot since the baby was born. … The bris was sad for me, seeing how others had to take the spot where my brother should have been." There were tears, "not the way a bris is supposed to be. An important someone was missing; the abba, my brother."

The traditional language of the bris milah ceremony was all the more haunting in its evocation of the father: "May his father rejoice... Then I passed by you and saw you downtrodden in your blood, and I said to you, 'In your blood, live! ... For the sake of the fathers may You save their children."


JWR contributor Jonathan Mark is Associate Editor of The New York Jewish Week. Send your comments to him by clicking here.


Up

© 2002, NY Jewish Week