‘You are standing today’: A Jewish lesson for America, 25 years after 9/11

Twenty-five years after September 11, 2001, a Jewish reading from Isaiah offers a lens for thinking about destruction, rebuilding and memory in America. The passage says, “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,” and describes Jerusalem rising from desolation to renewal.

The article recalls how hijackers seized four passenger planes and used them as weapons. One struck the Pentagon, while passengers and crew aboard United Flight 93 fought back before the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people were killed in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Lower Manhattan became a smoking ruin, thousands of families were shattered and a defining part of New York’s skyline disappeared within hours. The article compares those images with Isaiah’s description of a devastated city becoming renewed, writing that anyone who remembers Ground Zero can understand the force of that imagery.

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For Zion’s sake I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not be still, until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, and her salvation like a burning torch

New York rebuilt, the article says. The attackers murdered thousands of innocent people, but they did not destroy America or bring it to its knees. The passage’s refusal to remain silent also carries a warning about memory.

Twenty-five years is long enough for an entire generation to grow up without personal memories of the attacks. They did not watch the towers burn, see people covered in ash fleeing lower Manhattan or witness firefighters and police officers entering buildings as others escaped. For those who lived through September 11, the images remain difficult to forget.

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You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the Lord