A tribute to terror victims

September 11 will be commemorated locally at a little-known memorial built by the JNF and dedicated in 2009.

By GAIL LICHTMAN
JNF 9/11 monument 521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
JNF 9/11 monument 521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Sunday will mark 10 years since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the downing of United Flight 93.
In Israel, the day will be observed with a ceremony organized by the US Embassy at the country’s own 9/11 memorial, located on a hilltop in the Arazim Park, visible from the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
One of the few 9/11 monuments outside of the US and the only foreign one bearing the engraved names of all 2,974 victims (including five Israelis – Alona Avraham, Daniel Mark Levin, Hagai Shefi, Leon Lebor and Shai Levinhar), the September 11 memorial is unknown to most Israelis.
Dedicated on November 12, 2009, the memorial consists of a nine-meter bronze and aluminum sculpture representing the American flag that gradually turns into a memorial flame.
At the monument’s granite base, behind a glass window, is a piece of metal from the destroyed skeleton of the Twin Towers.
Designed by Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff, the memorial was commissioned and built, at a cost of some NIS 10 million, by the Edward Blank family of New York City through Jewish National Fund America and Keren Kayemet Leyisrael-Jewish National Fund Israel. The Bronka Stavsky Rabin Weintraub Fund funded the plaza around the memorial.
At the time of the dedication, former prime minister and ex-Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert, who was instrumental as mayor in promoting the memorial, said: “I will never forget the sight of what is now known as Ground Zero, which I visited a few days after the attack… The same suicidal, vicious spirit that was behind the almost daily terror attacks that were being perpetrated at the time in Jerusalem inspired the murderers in the United States.”
KKL-JNF world chairman Efi Stenzler, at the 2009 ceremony, warned that if the free world is to survive, it has no choice but to defend itself against those who would destroy it. “The war against terror must be fought simultaneously in many places throughout the world. No freedom-loving country is exempt from this threat or from the need to join the struggle.”
Speaking at the dedication on behalf of the bereaved families, Brig.-Gen. (res.) Dov Shefi, father of World Trade Center victim Hagai Shefi, noted that “for the families of the victims, this site is sacred.”
Because Israelis and Americans share so much in the struggle against terrorism, it is a shame that the memorial is not better known and visited more. One of the reasons for this is difficulty in accessing the site. The road to the memorial branches off from Highway 1 at Motza in the direction of Mevaseret Zion, and after a kilometer reaches Telem Springs National Park. The monument is two kilometers beyond the springs.
One Jerusalemite who visited the memorial said that the signs are confusing. “There was one tiny brown sign that is easily missed. It is really sad. The memorial should be a place people can find and go to easily. Otherwise, what is the point?”