9/11 Victims' Families and Friends To Speak in Jersey City

JERSEY CITY, NJ — To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks Jersey City will hold its annual “Reflections” Ceremony in front of the City’s 9/11 memorial, located across from where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood.

This year, to honor the victims on the 20th anniversary, the entire speaking program will consist exclusively of surviving family and friends of the 38 Jersey City residents who were lost on September 11, 2001.

“Twenty years ago, everyone’s lives changed on September 11th, especially here in Jersey City with such close proximity to Ground Zero and the many loved ones lost on that horrific day. This year, we felt it was important to hear directly from friends and family speaking about their loved ones, to honor their memories, and to put faces to the 38 residents we lost on that day twenty years ago,” said Mayor Fulop.

Jersey City resident Barbara Smith will be speaking in memory of her friend, Barbara Etzold, who died in the terror attacks. “Barbara worked for Fred Alger Funds in the North Tower, so it didn’t take long to realize she was one of the first to be killed. The ground zero of Ground Zero. I will miss her forever, what her life could have been these 20 years, and the horror of what she endured. Never forgotten, Barbara.”

The annual remembrance ceremony in Jersey City will begin at 8:30 a.m. this Saturday, September 11th, with a backdrop of the Hudson River. The waterfront location of the ceremony and Jersey City’s 9/11 memorial was used as the area’s largest triage center on the day of the attacks in 2001. At the site, Jersey City emergency responders did not hesitate to provide assistance and medical treatment to the countless people who flocked to Jersey City by boat to seek refuge.

The Jersey City 9/11 memorial consists of twisted steel beams from Ground Zero. The beams are sculpted to form the letter “A” when viewed from above. The ‘A’ for America serves as a backdrop to the black granite memorial stone that names the 38 fallen residents from Jersey City.

“It’s important that we remember the real people who were lost on September 11th, not just as names on the memorial but as the fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, friends, and loved ones that they truly were,” concluded Mayor Fulop.