Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish Businessman Among Victims In New York Truck-Ramming Terror Attack

(JTA) — Five of the people killed in a truck ramming attack in New York Tuesday afternoon were Argentine tourists visiting Manhattan to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their high school graduation, including one Jewish businessman.

Ariel Erlij, 48, a Jewish steel mill owner from the central Argentinian city of Rosario, was killed along with four ex-classmates.

Erlij reportedly paid for some of his high school friends to go on the trip so they could all be together for the anniversary. They graduated in 1987 from the Polytechnic School in Rosario.

“Argentina reaffirms its strongest condemnation of terrorist acts and violence in all its manifestations and reiterates the need to deepen the fight against this scourge,” the Argentine foreign ministry said in a statement.

Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders said in a tweet Tuesday night that a Belgian national also was killed in the attack.

A message from our Publisher & CEO 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 [email protected], 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.