Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish Honor Student Dies In Everglades Boat Crash While Celebrating Graduation

A talented Jewish honor student died when a boat carrying her family crashed in the Florida Everglades while celebrating her graduation from the University of Miami.

Just hours after graduating, Elizabeth (Ellie) Goldenberg, 22, was tossed from an airboat and died Saturday morning She died from her injuries at a nearby hospital, according to the Miami Herald. Her younger sister, Dana Goldenberg, 20, was hospitalized with minor injuries.

Their parents, who were visiting for the graduation from their hometown of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, were unhurt.

The crash was under investigation.

“We loved her, we miss her. It’s a tremendous loss to the world that she was taken so young,” her mom Renee Goldberg told the Sun-Sentinel. “I’m a mourning mother.”

Elizabeth Goldenberg graduated magna cum laude with a degree in fine arts on Friday. She was an aspiring actor.

“We all are suffering a terrible loss of a wondrous person who had huge hopes and dreams,” said friend Gabi Levin.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version