Remembering An Act Of Kindness 

On 9-11

Over the years, on the anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the thwarted attack on our nation’s capital, I’ve shared my memories of that terrible day.

I’ve told you about walking from my office in Greenwich Village to downtown—about a mile and a half—while everyone else was heading in the opposite direction. People were covered in soot and ash. Their faces were blank, confused and frightened. More than once, I wondered if I was doing the right thing.

I’ve also told you about walking across the Williamsburg Bridge with thousands of other New Yorkers. Nobody was talking. The only sounds were the endless sirens and the roar of F-16 Air Force jets screaming overhead.

But there is one thing I may never have told you.

Amid all the fear, confusion and devastation, there was a simple act of kindness shown to us by a group of people whose religion and culture are too often mocked and misunderstood.

And on this anniversary, I think that story is worth telling.

It was a beautiful Tuesday morning. On any other day it would have been a great day for a walk. But this day was no ordinary day. And the thousands of people who walked with me over a bridge I had crossed in my car that very morning knew that September 11 would never be the same again.

Many of those folks had been walking for miles just to get to one of the few escape routes from a city where mass transit had been suspended and no private vehicles allowed on the bridges and tunnels. So, we walked over the hot roadway. Some weeping, most silent. We were confused, hot, tired and- thirsty. Nobody had thought of bringing water with them. We were all too anxious to get home to our loved ones.

And then, as we were nearing the Brooklyn side of the bridge, an apparition.

Not the Red Cross. Not the police and not the FDNY. They were busy elsewhere. The apparition we encountered were not dressed in angelic white robes. Quite the opposite. Wearing traditional garb (long, black coats and hats. All with beards and payot)* was a group of Hasidic men handing out cold bottles of water to anybody who wanted one. No questions asked. No proselytizing. They were there to do a mitzva. A commandment or good deed in Judaism, serving as a religious duty and a way to connect with God. And on that day, when the most ungodly of acts were perpetrated on innocent people, a connection with god was just what was needed.

So, the next time you hear—or are tempted to make—a hateful or hurtful remark about people whose suffering has gone on for centuries, stop for a moment.

Remember those men on the Williamsburg Bridge.

They knew people were suffering. They could have walked away. Instead, they chose to help. They asked for nothing in return. Not money. Not recognition. Not even a “thank you.”

They simply did the right thing.

That is the image I want you to remember. ...bwc

*Side curls worn by orthodox Jewish men.

 

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