Daniel Libeskind
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 marked a significant milestone in the career of architect Daniel Libeskind — whose vision for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site was the clear choice of the people of New York. The simple plan he sketched in 2002, “Memory Foundations,” has undergone surprisingly little transformation on its way to completion.
Born in Lodz, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind passed Liberty Island as he arrived in America with his family in 1959. Not least because of his own immigrant roots, his design for the World Trade Center memorial draws strongly on the American immigrant mythology of the Statue of Liberty, which is visible from the building site at the southern tip of Manhattan.
In addition to his efforts in New York, Libeskind, 65, broke ground on a new synagogue in Munich and completed an astonishing new addition to the Dresden Museum of Military History this year. They are both considerable achievements for a son of Holocaust survivors, and in keeping with his 2003 Leo Baeck Medal for humanitarian work.
At the time of the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001, Libeskind had opened only a single building, albeit the Jewish museum in Berlin, but he is now considered one of the world’s leading architects. When his Freedom Tower (now to be called World Trade Center 1), opens next year, it will, at 1776 feet tall, command the Lower Manhattan skyline and anchor “Memory Foundations.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
