On March 1, family, friends and dignitaries gathered at the Brooklyn Bridge’s Ari Halberstam Memorial Ramp to mark 30 years since a terrorist murdered the 16-year-old.
His mother, Devorah Halberstam, emotionally recalled: “Tuesday morning March 1, 1994, 5:30 a.m., seeing Ari preparing to leave home to join 14 schoolmates who were accompanying Rabbi Schneerson, zt”l, to Manhattan for surgery. I didn’t say goodbye to Ari. I heard the door close behind him.” After surgery, the Rebbe’s motorcade departed; the students’ van a few minutes after. “As they reached the merging point at the tip of the bridge, at this very ramp, at 10:21 in the morning, a terrorist begins firing at the van.” She described the vast cache of arms—while shooting over 40 rounds, the terrorist chased the van across the Brooklyn Bridge. Ari was the first student struck, with a Cobray bullet to his brain.
Halberstam continued: “In his video confession, the terrorist who murdered my son was asked, ‘Did you see who was in the van?’ He answered, ‘Yes, Hasids; they were on top of each other.’ I cannot fathom the bloodthirsty hatred that permeated his being, the ideological poison that infiltrated his existence that led him down this path.
“Hate has seeped into our society like a plague,” Halberstam continued. “I am a Jew, and the lessons of our history through the most horrific times have taught us to survive and flourish. Today, we remember Ari, but we must never forget what he lived and died for. Elie Wiesel said the tragedy of the Holocaust was that those who should be shouting were silent. Many in this country were silent when Ari was murdered, afraid to acknowledge that terrorism exists, that antisemitism was alive and breathing.
“Each day, men, women and children are being targeted. They [the terrorists] respect no law. They view anybody and everybody, but especially Jews, as fair game. They believe the more blood they spill, the more ready the world will be to capitulate to nefarious demands. We must never ever give up the fight to destroy terrorism, antisemitism and hate, to prevent what happened 30 years ago today from ever happening again. Ari was murdered and his friends were targeted because they were identifiably Jewish. My message is we will survive. Hate will not win.”
Longtime Halberstam family friend NYC Mayor Eric Adams said: “We know how important it is for our city to live in a level of diversity and commitment to weed out hate no matter where it is; no matter where it shows itself. A mother turned her pain into purpose. When Ari died on this ramp, there was no understanding or belief that we were having sleeper cells in our city waiting to wreak havoc and violence. She spent 30 years of her life, those 10,000-plus days not only mourning the loss of her son but recommitting herself every day to prevent the loss of other children. She spoke anywhere and everywhere that people will listen to talk about the dangers that lurk in the shadows of our city. This country takes a different view towards terrorism because of what happened on this bridge, on this ramp.”
Ari’s brother Shia, just 4 years old in 1994, remarked: “There’s an old Talmudic idiom that states when one life is taken, an entire world is destroyed. That pain is excruciating. Time dulls but never fully heals. We’re reminded of Ari’s absence each day when we wake and again when we return to sleep, silently mentioning a prayer for his eventual return.
“Ari’s life and legacy lives on through the tireless efforts of my mother and our family, advocating for Ari. His legacy is memorialized in the Jewish Children’s Museum in the Crown Heights. Ari’s museum serves to educate youth from all backgrounds on principles of mutual respect and acceptance of all people. It is the lessons that we take from Ari’s murder to value life, treat all people with dignity, regardless of their race or creed.”
Shia noted: “Every day, I wear my yarmulke with pride in what it represents, in defiance of those who tried and continue to target our community here and abroad for our Jewish identity. I wear this yarmulke in deference to my brother as an act of homage for what he represented as a 16-year-old teenager, just beginning his life, and proudly presenting his truest self as a proud Jew every single day.”
NYC Councilman Kalman Yeager stated: “The murderer, the terrorist, the violent animal who did this, didn’t know Ari. He knew one thing. He saw a car full of Jews, and he wanted to kill. It could have been any of us. Thirty years later, it could still be any of us. Antisemitism hasn’t gone away.”
