(JNS) As the sun descended over the Judean Hills on Wednesday evening, Sept. 9, roses were placed beside the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
The setting was the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem’s Arazim Valley, where an American flag rises skyward in the form of a 30-foot (9-meter) bronze flame.
This year’s ceremony was held two days before the 25th anniversary of the terrorist attacks because Sept. 11 falls on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.
The passage of a quarter-century has not diminished the meaning of the memorial or the personal grief of those who lost loved ones.
For Suri and Henoch Morgenstern of Woodmere, NY, Wednesday night marked their first time attending the annual ceremony at the Jerusalem memorial. Their daughter, Nancy Morgenstern, was among those killed in the World Trade Center.
“Here now, we wanted to talk about Nancy and have her remembered,” Suri told JNS.
Nancy was 32 and the oldest of five children. A vibrant woman who enjoyed cycling and running, she had worked as a travel agent for seven years before becoming an administrative assistant at the Cantor Fitzgerald financial services firm on the 104th floor of the North Tower.
No employee in Cantor Fitzgerald’s offices survived after American Airlines Flight 11 struck the tower.
For the Morgenstern family, the loss was compounded by the agonizing uncertainty that followed. They waited two and a half years before they could finally sit shivah for their daughter.
In August 2002, the family purchased the first ambulance for the Ramot Beit Shemesh community in Nancy’s memory. They have continued to honor her through acts of giving.
On Wednesday night, they stood among hundreds gathered beneath the flame-shaped flag.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee speaks at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem, Sept. 9, 2026. Photo by Sharon Altshul.
‘A wake-up call’
“Twenty-five years after the horrific September 11 attacks, we remember the 2,977 innocent lives taken and the families who have carried that loss,” US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said at the ceremony.
Huckabee began his remarks with a personal memory of his father, a firefighter. As a young boy, he recalled visiting the fire station and sliding down the pole.
That memory took on a different meaning as he spoke about the firefighters and first responders who ran toward the burning buildings on Sept. 11.
“It was a wake-up call,” Huckabee said, emphasizing the courage of those who responded to the attacks.
Among the stories of extraordinary bravery was that of Rick Rescorla, head of security for Morgan Stanley. Thanks to evacuation planning and regular drills, approximately 2,700 Morgan Stanley employees in the South Tower were able to escape.
Rescorla returned to the building to help others. He never came out.
For Huckabee, honoring that day means remembering not only those whose lives were taken but also those who understood that their responsibility was to run toward danger while others ran away.
The toll continues
That responsibility, speakers emphasized, did not end on Sept. 11, 2001.
Professor Marc Wilkenfeld, a board-certified specialist in occupational and environmental medicine, has spent the past 25 years treating 9/11 first responders and studying the long-term health consequences of exposure to the toxic environment created by the attacks. After making aliyah, he continued his work in Jerusalem at Hadassah Medical Center Ein Kerem’s Occupational Health Department.
Speaking to JNS, Wilkenfeld stressed that the death toll from 9/11 did not end that morning.
“More than 9,000 more have died since,” he said. “Thousands more struggle with cancer, PTSD and lung disease. These are still people we have to care for.”
The legacy of Sept. 11 was also reflected in the presence at the ceremony of American and Israeli firefighters, police representatives and US military personnel.
Israel Police spokesperson Dean Elsdunne told JNS that while the nature of the terrorist threat has changed over the past 25 years, the principle of confronting it has not.
“The threats have evolved over 25 years, but the alliance between Israel and the US hasn’t changed,” he said.
“For those of us in uniform, ‘Never Forget’ isn’t just a phrase for a ceremony. It’s how we operate.”
An ‘unbreakable bond’
The ceremony also highlighted the enduring US-Israel relationship.
Eyal Ostrinsky, chairman of Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund, said the two countries share an “unbreakable bond.”
Russell Robinson, CEO of Jewish National Fund-USA, spoke of turning dreams into reality, planting trees and refusing to allow terrorism to destroy hope.
“Hope is more powerful than terrorism,” he said, calling on people to live lives of meaning and purpose.
The memorial embodies that connection.
Established in 2009 by KKL-JNF and JNF-USA, it is the only memorial outside the United States displaying the names of all those killed in the 9/11 attacks. Created by Israeli artist Eliezer Weishoff together with KKL-JNF landscape architect Yechiel Cohen, the bronze sculpture depicts the American flag transforming into a flame.
A piece of steel recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center is incorporated into its base.
Around it are the names, arranged alphabetically, each representing a life, a family and a story.
Five Israelis were among those killed: Alona Avraham, Leon Lebor, Daniel Lewin, Shai Levinhar and Hagai Shefi.
As darkness settled over the Judean Hills, representatives of KKL-JNF, JNF-USA and the US embassy jointly lit the memorial torch. Wreaths were placed at the foot of the flame, aided by US Marines and Israeli firefighters.
The Israel Police Orchestra and Special in Uniform band performed, while the Heart of Nova group brought another layer of remembrance to the ceremony.
Tali Binar and Guy Ben-Shimon, survivors of the Supernova music festival massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, performed alongside Ofri Nahum, whose sister Nitzan was murdered in the attack.
American actress Patricia Heaton at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the 9/11 Living Memorial in Jerusalem, Sept. 9, 2026. Photo by Sharon Altshul.
American actress Patricia Heaton also participated, reciting a poem at the memorial ceremony before returning to the United States.
The connection between two generations of terrorism was underscored by a 27-year-old US Army veteran whose mother worked at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. Five of her mother’s colleagues were killed. In all, 59 passengers and crew aboard American Airlines Flight 77 and 125 people at the Pentagon were killed when the hijacked plane struck the building.
The juxtaposition was impossible to miss: a memorial to the victims of one generation of terrorism standing in a country still confronting the consequences of another.
Yet the evening was not solely about grief. It was about memory and resolve—remembering those who were murdered, those who survived, those who rushed toward danger, those who became ill years later and those who continue to confront terrorism today.
In the fading light, visitors moved along the memorial wall, stopping at individual names to place red roses. Twenty-five years after the deadliest terrorist attack in American history, the names remain etched in stone—and the obligation to remember endures.
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