Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Rabbinical Student Killed in Garbage Truck Accident

A rabbinical student struck by a garbage truck on Sunday morning died at the scene of the accident, officials said.

Ukrainian-born Gedalia Gruntzweig was struck while crossing an intersection in Crown Heights. The 25-year-old was reportedly on his way to a friend’s engagement party, according to the New York Post.

“I heard these terrible screams,” witness Abraham Greisman told the Post. “All I saw was the truck, the driver getting out, pacing back and forth. He must have been in shock.”

Witness reports conflicted with police statements, which said that Gruntzweig had the walk signal at the time he crossed the intersection.

The truck driver remained on the scene. A Brooklyn councilwoman told the New York Times that police are reviewing surveillance videos and witnesses testimony.

Gruntzweig has been identified as a student at Tiferes Bachurim, a Chabad-Labavitch yeshiva located in Morristown, NJ, and was reportedly studying to become a rabbi, JTA reported.

The Department of Sanitation released a statement expressing its “deepest condolences to the family” and the entire community.

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.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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.