SEPTEMBER 9 • 2021 | 15

M

ost adults can tell 
you exactly where 
they were and what 
they were doing when they 
first learned about the terror 
attacks that sunny Tuesday 
morning on Sept. 11, 2001.
For 81 Metro Detroiters, that 
memory includes a stop for 
ice cream in a mall at Alonim 
Junction in the Jezreel Valley, en 
route to Migdal HaEmek in the 
Detroit Partnership region.
They were there as part 
of a national United Jewish 
Communities (UJC) Mission, 
meant to show solidarity with 
Israelis who were experiencing 
suicide bombings on nearly 
a daily basis in wake of the 
Second Intifada, which had 
started a year earlier.
“The com-
munities of our 
Partnership 2000 
region were suffer-
ing and we needed 
to show our con-
cern by being there 
to express our sol-
idarity,
” said Mark 
Davidoff, then 

CFO of Federation, who was on 
the mission. Tourism to Israel 
had dried up, and Federation 
wanted to participate in the 
mission to “focus on giving 
comfort to our friends in Israel,
” 
he said.
Before the trip was over, 
the tables would be turned, 
and it would be the Israelis 
who provided comfort to their 
American friends.

GETTING 
THE NEWS 
ON THE BUS
Staff Writer Harry 
Kirsbaum was on 
the mission, cov-
ering the event for 
the Jewish News. “I 
remember this one 
lady, who had been going the 
opposite way on the expressway 
when she passed our buses,
” 
he said. “She turned around 
to follow the buses and when 
we stopped, she ran up and 
thanked us. She said it was good 
to see buses on the road again.
”
At that stop, people’s phones 
started ringing, telling of a 

9-11: 20 Years Later

plane hitting the World Trade 
Center in New York. 
“We didn’t initially under-
stand what was going on,
” said 
Larry Jackier, who headed up 
the Detroit delegation. 
Bert Stein was on the mis-
sion as a participant, eager to 
show his support for Israel 
when it was “alone in the 
world.
” 
“When someone said a 
plane hit the World Trade 
Center, I thought it was a 
feasible accident,” he said. 
“Then someone said a sec-
ond plane had hit the tower. 
My first thought was naive: ‘Isn’t that a 
coincidence?’ I couldn’t believe that peo-
ple would want to hurt people in New 
York City. Then, of course, I realized it 
was a terror attack.”
Marta Rosenthal was on the mission 
with her 22-year-old daughter Rachel. 
“We were frantic because my husband 
was in Chicago and my younger daugh-
ter was in Washington, D.C., at univer-
sity, and we couldn’t get hold of them,” 
she said. 
Jackier said their bus driver had the 
news on and began to translate what he 
was hearing into English for those who 
didn’t speak Hebrew. 
“It became very clear that America 
was under attack,” Davidoff said. “We 
tried but couldn’t get a single call home. 

“IT BROUGHT EVERYTHING HOME TO ME. THIS IS WHAT ISRAEL 
HAD BEEN DEALING WITH ON A DAILY BASIS. WE WERE HATED BY 
THE SAME PEOPLE. WE WERE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT.”

— HARRY KIRSBAUM

continued on page 16

Bert Stein

Mark 
Davidoff

Larry 
Jackier

Harry 
Kirsbaum

