Atlanta Connections

Terrorist attacks hit home for some Atlanta Jews.

Jason Green/Managing Editor

Millions of Americans watched and listened as horrible details of terrorist attacks unfolded in New York, Washington, D.C., and rural Pennsylvania Sept. 11.

Four planes had been hijacked. Two smashed into the twin skyscrapers of New York City’s World Trade Center, causing the towers to collapse. A third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, damaging a building vital to America’s defense, while the fourth crashed in a field in rural Pennsylvania, killing all on board, but apparently missing its intended target — an important government building in Washington.

Though the attacks were hundreds of miles away from Atlanta, no one in the metropolitan area felt safe or secure. It was an uneasy feeling, a shattering of the safety net Americans have grown accustomed to in this land of the free and home of the brave.

But for some Atlanta Jews, the situation hit even closer to home.

Bonnie Chachkes, an East Cobb resident, feared her father-in-law, Israel, who heads capital improvement projects at the World Trade Center, had perished in the attack.

“Once the building went down, I thought he was dead,” says Chachkes, whose husband, Jake, is director of emergency medicine in Savannah and commutes between there and the family home.

But Israel Chachkes, 68, was able to escape from his 82nd-floor office in Tower 1 of the World Trade Center.

“I’m going to go to shul on the High Holidays and say a prayer,” Chachkes says in a telephone interview from his New York home. “I’m very thankful to be alive. I’m very thankful to be talking to you.”

A meeting was being held in Chachkes’ office when the group decided to continue its discussion over coffee. They headed for the elevator and planned to take it to a cafe on the 44th floor.

The group got inside the elevator. Almost immediately, they heard a crash and fire shot down the elevator shaft. As the doors flapped open and closed, the group was able to escape by sticking their arms out and prying the doors apart, says Chachkes, who immigrated to the United States from Israel in 1949.

Chachkes headed for an emergency stairwell and started his descent. The closer he got to the ground, the more crowded the stairwell became. Word of the attack had reached the stairwell through a radio report.

To make escape even more difficult, police, fire and emergency personnel were trying to reach upper levels of the building via the same stairwell.

More than an hour after he started his escape, Chachkes made it outside. But his ordeal was far from over. As he left the building, Chachkes says he heard a tremendous rumble. The building collapsed, engulfing him in smoke and debris.

“It was pitch dark. I could hardly breathe,” says Chachkes, still coughing from the smoke he inhaled. “Once I was in that cloud of dust, I thought ‘this is it.’”

Chachkes was able to make his way to a barbershop a couple of blocks away. There, workers gave him cold, damp towels and helped him catch his breath. He then walked to New York University Medical Center where his wife works.

Bonnie Chachkes and her family finally found Israel was alive at around 2 p.m.

“Thank God,” says Bonnie Chachkes, who has four children between the ages of 9 months and 12. “It’s a miracle he made it out. It was scary.”

For Atlanta native Josh Kunis, it was good timing that kept him out of harms’ way.

Kunis was supposed to have an interview with a World Trade Center law firm Tuesday. He had asked for a 9 a.m. meeting. The company countered with something a little later and scheduled the appointment for 2 p.m.

Excited about the interview, Kunis, who moved from Atlanta to New York just a few weeks ago, was already starting to think about his interview when the World Trade Center was hit.

“I count my blessings,” he says in a telephone interview from New York. “I feel fortunate.”

Estee Kunis, Josh’s mother, says she never thought something like this could happen in America. Her daughter, Lea, was scheduled to return to Israel for seminary training last month, but she encouraged her not to go because of violence in the Jewish state. Now it was her son who could have been injured.

“He just had no reason for the change in interview time,” says Kunis, whose husband, Mark, is the rabbi at Shearith Israel. “It took a full day to get over the shock of what could have happened.”

Josh Kunis says everyone was still in shock as rescue efforts continued last week.

“No one really knows what to do,” Kunis says. “Everyone wants to help, but there’s no more to do.”

There also were some tense moments for air passengers during the attack.

Scott Buckler of Dunwoody was on a 7:30 a.m. departure from Hartsfield International Airport to LaGuardia Airport in New York.

At a few minutes past 9, everything was going smoothly. The pilot came over the intercom and said he expected to land 15 minutes early.

Just moments later, Buckler says, the pilot returned to the intercom, telling passengers that if they looked to the right, they would see black smoke coming from the World Trade Center. Terrorism, the pilot said, was the expected cause.

Buckler was unable to see out the window and catch a glimpse of the World Trade Center. Passengers were scared.

“It’s a very small world,” says Buckler, a member of Congregation Beth Shalom. “A young lady who was sitting behind me works at the World Trade Center.”

Buckler’s plane was diverted to Allentown-Bethlehem Airport in Pennsylvania, where he rented a car and drove 800 miles home to Atlanta. On the trip, he listened to the radio.

“While I know these were East to West Coast planes to maximize fuel, I couldn’t help but think this could have happened to me,” says Buckler, who worked in New York’s financial district for 15 years and witnessed the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. “I feel I dodged one there.”

While other families are grateful that they averted personal tragedy, an Atlanta couple grieves for their missing nephew.

Eric Stahlman worked at the trading firm of Cantor Fitzgerald, a name that now lies heavy in the hearts and minds of Americans everywhere. Housed on the top floors of Tower 1, 700 of its 1,000 employees are listed as missing.

For Julie and Howard Stahlman of Buckhead the news is grim. Their nephew, Eric, who they call a giving, caring, generous person, husband and father of two small children, went to work at Cantor Fitzgerald on Tuesday morning as he did every day.

At 8:15 a.m. he was at his desk and called his wife, Blanka, for a simple morning check-in. When they hung up, neither could have known it would be their last phone call.

Julie Stahlman says she was out getting some exercise when a woman walking her dog asked if she had heard what happened. “I got in the house and put on the TV. It didn’t even occur to me that Eric worked there until my daughter called me,” she says.

Blanka Stahlman is in shock says Julie Stahlman, but she is hugging her kids and drawing strength by keeping in touch with the wives of other missing employees. She took DNA samples of her husband to the local police station in Holmdel, N.J., to be put in the hands of the proper authorities.

Howard and Julie Stahlman, members of The Temple, say that they will try to drive north soon, but planned to spend the High Holidays here in Atlanta with family members.

Jewish Family and Career Services response to the tragedy was to put together a calendar of grief counseling group sessions at their headquarters in Dunwoody, at Emory University and at the Jewish Tower.

Their counselors also helped give guidance to the school counseling teams at The Epstein School, Yeshiva Atlanta, Torah Day School and the Jewish Community Center and Temple Kol Emeth preschools.

“We gave them information as to how to help parents process their own fears and worries, and tools for helping their children,” says Rhoda Margolis, a licensed clinical social worker and associate executive director of JF&CS. “At this point in time you have to reach out and share your feelings and feel connected to each other. It’s important to create and environment where there is time and space for the healing process.”

According to Margolis, keeping as normal a routine as possible is essential. She says that fatigue, trouble sleeping, nervous energy, hyperactivity and changes in appetite are all part of a common response that may be experienced by people working through their feelings about the acts of terrorism.

Francine Kaplan, senior editor for Arts & Life, contributed to this story.

Atlanta Rabbis Offer Insight, Comfort And Prayer

Terrorist attacks hit home for some Atlanta Jews.

Joyce Kinnard

Rabbi Binyomin Friedman, Congregation Ariel, held an emergency prayer session on the night of the tragedy. “We recited psalms together for the well-being of the victims and their families, for the protection of Israel and all of us, and for God’s retribution against the enemies of Israel to destroy them and ‘scatter them like straw’.”

Rabbi Jonathan Glass, Congregation B’nai Torah, found two important messages in the tragedy. “One is our vulnerability and the other is the extent of the evil that unfortunately still exists. This terror and violence is something we’ve seen in Israel, and no one will doubt the validity of pre-emptive strikes anymore. The world has changed now. We’ll have a broad coalition against these kinds of acts.”

Rabbi Ilan Feldman, Congregation Beth Jacob, held a service with prayers for families and victims. He urged “President Bush to do that which Jewish law calls for. When your life is threatened, kill the ones who make the threat. We are concerned for the people who still need to be rescued, the injured and the bereaved families.”

Rabbi Steven J. Lebow, Temple Kol Emeth, held a memorial service with Bais Chayeinu/Chabad of Cobb, Congregation Etz Chaim and Temple Beth Tikvah. He warned, “terror needs to be met with might. To the outside world, we Americans may have appeared weak and divided, a patchwork quilt of many nations, with many faces, many races, many languages, but now our country comes together as only Americans can. To those who would threaten us, our families or our nation, we can only say that we will reach out with an outstretched and with a mighty arm.”

Rabbi S. Robert Ichay, Congregation Or VeShalom, led prayers for a speedy recovery to those who were hurt and for those who lost their lives. “My reaction is one of anger. I do not use the word ‘revenge.’ I prefer saying, ‘we’ll bring these people to justice.’ We need to find ways and means to prevent future acts of this kind.”

Atlantans Reflect On Terror

Linda Bachmann

Brad Bailey, 13, Marietta
“I can’t believe it happened. America is supposed to be the safest place. I’ll look at safety differently, and watch out for things all around. We talked about it at school, all day.”

Janet Brenner, Marietta
“It made me realize life is so short, we need to appreciate our family and friends. It all can be gone in a heartbeat. I feel proud to be Jewish. I knew we would come together and find strength in each other.”

Elise Salter, 11, Cherokee County
“I went to school that day not thinking about things like safety. My friends know people who were hurt. People seem quieter now.”

Sam Olens, Cobb County Commissioner
“We can view life now the way Israelis view it. The safety of our country is not the way we saw it prior to yesterday. Angered Americans should still support Israel; I’m concerned about the backlash. Whether Republican or Democrat, our leaders all understand the value of our relationship with Israel.”

Stuart Blickstein, Marietta
“When you’re threatened, you take action. I hope it changed the American people and will stop some of the criticism of the way Israel its attacks. There’s been a very reflective feeling in the U.S.... as similar mentality at the time of Pearl Harbor. I have a friend whose son is running to enlist.”

Bernice Lacefield, Marietta
“My immediate reaction was sadness and anger. We realize how vulnerable we all are. I’ll think twice about flying.”

John Salter, Cherokee County
“Our sense of invulnerability is gone forever — for our kids, as well.”

Harry Popkin, Atlanta
“The least we can do is say a prayer for those who lost their life.”