This Week

Chance

A year later, families mourn
the victims of EgyptAir Flight 990.

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer

C

losure came a year late to the
families of Lawrence and
Edith Kowalsky of West
Bloomfield and Norman and
Jean Shapiro of Drayton Plains. The
couples were among those who died on
EgyptAir Flight 990 on Oct. 31, 1999.
On Oct. 31, 2000, the survivors'
families joined a group of 600 at a sea-
side park in Newport, RI., for a burial
ceremony of a coffin containing
unidentified remains of the victims.
The ceremony commemorated the day
the plane plunged into the Atlantic off
Nantucket Island, killing 217.
Clergy representing the five faiths of
the crash victims participated. "The
winds were howling. The tent at times
almost buckled," said Rabbi Herbert
Yoskowitz of Adat Shalom Synagogue.
"It had a sense of drama, both from
God's force as well as a historical force
— the sense of loss."
That morning, a service was held at
the Touro Synagogue in Newport, the
oldest synagogue in the United States
and where George Washington said in
1790: " ... the government of the

United States, which gives to bigotry,
— "an individual who knew us."
no sanction, to persecution no assis-
Kowalsky added, "The last week has
tance, requires only that they who live
gone a long way towards closure,
under its protection should deman
although it's kind of difficult to com-
themselves as good citizens."
prehend. The whole sequence of
At Touro Synagogue, Rabbi
events was thrown out
Yoskowitz led a Shacharit
because we had a memorial
From top:
[morning prayer] and memo-
At Brenton Point service here last year, and we
rial service, with tallit and
sat shivah."
State Park in
tefillin, for survivors of the
It happened this way
Newport, R.I.,
Jewish crash victims. Three
because
of the ongoing
mourners gather
generations of survivors from
investigation
into the crash.
around a memo-
at least four states attended.
The
remains
of
those aboard
rial to victims of
the
flight
were
not
released
the EgyptAir
until recently.
Flight 990 crash.
Jewish Loved Ones
Farmington Hills-based
Memorial detail
To memorialize all the Jews
Adat Shalom also held a
enlarged below.
who died on the flight, Rabbi
local Shacharit service in its
Yoskowitz had received their
Shiffman Chapel.
Hebrew names from family members.
Funeral services were held for
Chanting their loved ones' Hebrew
Lawrence and Edith Kowalsky on
names at the synagogue service "gave
Nov: 5 and Norman and Jean Shapiro
people a chance to weep and to
on Nov. 12 at Adat Shalom Memorial
mourn, to grieve and to affirm at the
Park Cemetery in Livonia.
same time," the rabbi said.
For Rabbi Yoskowitz, the morning
The Kowalskys' son, Howard
service at Touro Synagogue was espe-
Kowalsky of West Bloomfield, said,
cially meaningful because it "honored
"The morning service was most corn-
the memories of loved ones in a place
forting and most meaningful to me
that has great poignancy for the fami-
and my family members." He appre-
lies and great historical meaning for all
ciated having Rabbi Yoskowitz lead it
of us." ❑

The Kowalskys

The Shapiros

