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Noah Pozner Recalled as Jewish Boy With Big Heart

Newtown Victim's Mom Recounts Short Life Filled With Love

By Forward Staff

(Page 2 of 4)

The boy’s older brother, Michael, had to compose himself before offering a eulogy at the funeral, a friend told the New York Times.

“We no longer have a brother,” the friend recalled him saying, “but now we have a guardian angel.”

Veronique Pozner managed to keep her composure as she told of his dreams of becoming a doctor one day.

In a statement, the Pozner family said they were overwhelmed and grateful for all the support “from people from all walks of life, from far and near.”

“Noah, his classmates and the heroic teachers who gave their lives trying to protect them are with God in heaven,” the statement said, according to USA Today. “Now it’s our responsibility to bring heaven down to earth – act by act, good deed by good deed, until we reach the day when no family will need to endure grief and sorrow, the day we reach a world filled with goodness and light.”

A second funeral was being held in Newtown for Jack Pinto, another boy slain when gunman Adam Lanza opened fire at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, killing 27 people before turning the gun on himself.

Noah Pozner’s twin sister and 8-year-old sister were also students at the school, but escaped unhurt.

His family lived in Brooklyn, but moved to Connecticut in search of more safety and better schools.

The family’s rabbi, Shaul Praver, moved many to tears when he sang a Hebrew mourning prayer at the vigil for the victims Sunday night.

The two funerals on Monday ushered in what will be a week of memorial services and burials for the 20 children and six adults massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Senator Richard Blumenthal and Governor Dannel P. Malloy were among the mourners.

The shooting sent waves of anxiety across the country on the first school day since a 20-year-old gunman opened fire in the close-knit community last week.

Within hours of the school starting bell on Monday, lockdowns were declared in nearby Connecticut and New York towns. And in southern California, Indiana and Tennessee, authorities arrested men on Sunday for making threats against schools.

Newtown’s schools remained closed after a weekend of mourning that followed Adam Lanza’s shooting spree on Friday that claimed 28 lives, including his mother’s and his own.