Tak­ing tragedy and turn­ing it into some­thing pos­i­tive for the bet­ter­ment of soci­ety is the embod­i­ment of Jew­ish val­ues. The ter­ror­ist attacks of Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001 chal­lenged our abil­i­ty to com­pre­hend the mag­ni­tude of human pain, suf­fer­ing and the destruc­tion asso­ci­at­ed with it. 658 Can­tor Fitzger­ald employ­ees trapped togeth­er on the 101 – 105th floors of One World Trade Cen­ter, includ­ing my broth­er, Gary, died that day. The lives of the fam­i­lies left behind were bro­ken. The Can­tor Fitzger­ald Relief Fund played a major role in help­ing these fam­i­lies, set­ting an exam­ple of tikun olam (repair­ing the world) at its finest. An Unbro­ken Bond is the sto­ry of the vic­tims, the fam­i­lies and how through one company’s attempt to repair their lives, they came togeth­er, bound by a trag­ic fate and moved for­ward despite unfath­omable obsta­cles. Through ded­i­ca­tion and tzedakah, Edie and Howard Lut­nick, an orphaned Jew­ish broth­er and sis­ter, com­mit­ted their lead­er­ship of Can­tor Fitzger­ald and its Relief Fund to chang­ing the lives of thou­sands.

The decade fol­low­ing Sep­tem­ber 11, 2001 pro­vides an oppor­tu­ni­ty to learn from the actions of indi­vid­u­als, com­pa­nies, com­mu­ni­ties, gov­ern­ments and reli­gions. It is by hear­ing sto­ries that we learn, improve and pre­pare for the future.