Jewish Pair Killed as Sandy Topples Tree
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 30, 2012
Two Jewish 23-year-olds were killed in the midst of Hurricane Sandy on Monday night while walking their dog in Brooklyn.
Jacob Vogelman and Jessie Streich-Kest were hit by a falling tree in the Ditmas Park neighborhood, the New York Observer reported.
The two grew up at Park Slope synagogues, according to a source who knows the pair. Vogelman’s family attended Congregation Beth Elohim, a large Reform synagogue, and Steich-Kest’s attended Kolot Chayeinu, a progressive congregation.
Steich-Kest’s father is Jon Kest, executive director of New York Communities for Change and former director of New York ACORN. In a 2007 blog post, former ACORN chief organizer Wade Rathke credited Jesse with setting up a long-delayed meeting between ACORN and then-Senator Barack Obama.
Vogelman graduated from SUNY Buffalo, according to his Facebook page.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
