{"id":1038951,"date":"2026-09-02T13:53:31","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038951\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T13:53:31","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T13:53:31","slug":"the-pain-and-truama-of-9-11-shaped-many-of-those-leading-nyc-25-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1038951\/","title":{"rendered":"The pain and truama of 9\/11 shaped many of those leading NYC 25 years later"},"content":{"rendered":"

The attacks of Sept 11, 2001 claimed thousands of lives and shattered countless families, but the trauma of that day and the resilience NYC showed in the weeks and years following the destruction of the Twin Towers also helped shape many who would go onto key positions of leadership in the worlds of politics, business and culture.<\/p>\n

Here are just a few of their stories:<\/p>\n

Julie Menin, NYC Council speaker<\/p>\n

Julie Menin was living in lower Manhattan and running a small bistro across from the New York Stock Exchange when the terrorists struck, turning her bustling neighborhood into a roiling sea of smoke, debris and death.<\/a><\/p>\n

Her husband had scheduled a meeting at his office in the World Trade Center, but switched the location at the last moment<\/a>. She was supposed to be attending a restaurant expo on the concourse of the Twin Towers on Sept. 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween the two close calls, and what I saw around me, I knew I had to do something,\u201d Menin told the Daily News. \u201cIt was an unbelievably harrowing time. Our community was in ruins.\u201d<\/p>\n

With her business practically destroyed, Menin founded a non-profit called Wall Street Rising<\/a> to help spearhead the downtown business recovery. She went on to lead the local community board in Tribeca for three terms as the neighborhood rebuilt, returned to normal and became more desirable than ever in the years following the attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, 9\/11 was why I got involved in public service,\u201d she said. \u201cI just think it was an obligation. Our city was in crisis. I felt compelled to get involved. What else could I do?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CityCity Council Speaker Julie Menin (John McCarten\/NYC Council Media Unit)<\/p>\n

The fight became even more deeply personal for Menin. Her mother, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, died of cancer that she blames on her exposure to toxic chemicals<\/a> in the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks.<\/p>\n

Menin eventually moved to the upper East Side and won election as a council member. She was elected City Council speaker this year, where she\u2019s had a sometimes contentious relationship with Mayor Mamdani, a fellow Democrat. Some predict she could one day run for mayor.<\/p>\n

She is still fighting to get the federal government to continue funding its 9\/11 health program<\/a> and for the city to release any records it has about what officials knew at the time about the dangers posed by the toxic fumes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unconscionable and infuriating,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that we have to fight for funding and for the release of these documents. It\u2019s unbelievable we\u2019re in this situation 25 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kamar Samuels, NYC Schools Chancellor<\/p>\n

Kamar Samuels started as a classroom teacher at MS 194 on the Gun Hill Road section of the East Bronx in the aftermath of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

The future New York City Schools Chancellor spoke at a recent event about how the traumatic fallout from the terror attack forced teachers and students alike to confront their fears and build unity,<\/a> across the city and the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started teaching, the current event was 9\/11, and the bias was Islamophobia,\u201d said Samuels, who was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica. \u201cSince then, we\u2019ve seen all kinds of bias arise at different moments. And we need to meet these moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuels said surviving and thriving during crises like the terror attacks can teach school communities old-fashioned but crucial lessons.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to help our young people navigate across difference, so that they can build empathy,\u201d Samuels said at the event for NYC teaching fellows. That\u2019s truly what\u2019s not, what I call, AI-able. They have to be able to connect across difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SchoolsSchools Chancellor Kamar Samuels greets students at P.S.\/M.S. 194 in the Bronx on Monday, January 5, 2026. (Michael Appleton\/Mayoral Photography Office)
\nLillian Bonsignore, FDNY Commissioner<\/p>\n

New York City Fire Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore\u00a0 was an instructor at the EMS Academy at Fort Totten in Queens when two highjacked commercial jetliners obliterated the World Trade Center\u2019s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001.\u00a0 Everyone at the academy that day scooped up their gear, marshaled ambulances, commandeered city buses from a nearby hub and formed a convoy headed south.<\/p>\n

They set off to rescue critically injured patients, \u201cbut there weren\u2019t any,\u201d Bonsignore said. They functioned instead as a \u201cforward morgue,\u201d moving remains and trying to match them with items that could identify the dead.<\/p>\n

The horor and pain of that day helped shape her approach.\u00a0Bonsignore said she\u2019d always been motivated \u201cto help our younger generation prepare for anything that they were going to see,\u201d and the World Trade Center attacks strengthened that resolve.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt personally responsible to help prepare the next generation for anything that was going to come their way,\u201d Bonsignore said. \u201cThat included leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonsignore became an EMS lieutenant in 2005 and a paramedic in 2007. In 2016 she was appointed chief of the EMS Academy in Fort Totten and then chief of the city\u2019s EMS Operations three years later.<\/p>\n

Throughout her career, Bonsignore\u00a0maintains \u201cnever forget\u201d as not just a slogan but also a living practice. Of today\u2019s 17,000 FDNY members, only about 700 remain who were working and responded during 9\/11.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis responsibility of never forget is going to be transferred to the shoulders of people who weren\u2019t there,\u201d Bonsignore noted. \u201cBecause at some point the 700 of us will have moved on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The FDNY has taken an array of steps as technology has advanced\u00a0 to improve its crisis response capabilities. It adopted the National Incident Command System, which standardizes emergency-response communication across the nation during a mass casualty event; added digital capabilities to make the department\u2019s radio system more reliable, and improved interagency communication. An FDNY counterterrorism unit coordinates with federal officials and agencies to prepare for potential local impacts of world events.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fire department is in a whole new place,\u201d Bonsignore said. \u201cWe had to build back, and we had to build back stronger and better and more prepared than we ever were. We continue to move forward and as an organization to prepare for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"FDNYFDNY Commissioner Lillian Bonsignore. (Barry Williams \/ New York Daily News)
\nSteve Fulop, Partnership for New York<\/p>\n

Steve Fulop was already sitting at his desk at Goldman Sachs<\/a> in lower Manhattan after his regular 7:15 am meeting on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

As the World Trade Center burned a few blocks away, the recent college graduate was evacuated by ferry<\/a> to his home in New Jersey. He watched the second tower collapse from the middle of the Hudson River.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat moment had a profound effect on me,\u201d Fulop told the Daily News. \u201cBefore then, I was thinking about maximizing what I could make financially. I started thinking more about service, what I could do for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within months, the future mayor of Jersey City had decided to quit the dream Wall Street job and enlist in the Marine Corps<\/a> instead. The terror attacks were the impetus for that transformation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI signed up, saying I was willing to do anything for this country,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause I believe I\u2019m one of the beneficiaries of everything it\u2019s done for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JerseyJersey City Mayor Steve Fulop speaks after the Democratic gubernatorial debate at Rider University in Lawrenceville, N.J., on Feb. 2, 2025. (AP photo\/Mike Catalini)<\/p>\n

After serving in Iraq, Fulop returned to New Jersey and plunged into public service<\/a>. At 28, He beat an incumbent to became the third youngest city council member in Jersey City history. Fulop served three terms as Jersey City mayor<\/a>, and once took a swipe at then-candidate Donald Trump for his false claim that some Muslims in Jersey City celebrated the terror attacks. He lost the 2025 Democratic primary for governor.<\/p>\n

This year, he became the new head of the Partnership for New York, a public policy group representing some of the city\u2019s biggest businesses<\/a>, a post where many expect him to fight against higher taxes proposed by Mayor Mamdani.<\/p>\n

Even a quarter century later, Fulop says the horrific events Sept. 11 shape his life on a daily basis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trajectory I was on, on Sept.10 was totally different,\u201d he said. \u201cMy priorities and motivations changed. I would still draw a straight line from what happened to who I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shahana Hanif, NYC Council member<\/p>\n

Ten-year-old Shahan Hanif was walking with friends to the mosque near her Brooklyn home a couple of weeks after 9\/11.\u00a0A car pulled up and the driver yelled: \u201cTerrorists!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

The terrified girls ran. A few days later, the fifth grader got her older cousin to help draft a letter to President George W. Bush, asking him to help protect her and other Muslims as a wave of Islamophobia hit NYC and the nation after the terror attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the first questions we asked each other was, \u2018Can the president help us?\u2019\u201d Hanif recalled later.<\/p>\n

\"CityCity Council member Shahana Hanif speaks at a rally outside a liquor store on Hoyt St. near Baltic St. in Brooklyn, New York on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, after a violent arrest was filmed inside. (Gardiner Anderson \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

They never got an answer, but the nascent organizing effort was a first taste of activism for Hanif,<\/a> the daughter of Bangladeshi immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the aftermath of the attacks, my family and community were not only reeling from this violent destruction like all New Yorkers, but immediately and personally felt an increase in Islamophobia and a lack of safety,\u201d Hanif told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

Hanif went on to become the first Muslim woman elected to New York City Council<\/a> and recently won reelection to a second four-year term representing a multicultural section of Kensington.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty-five years later, Muslim New Yorkers have built tremendous political power,\u201d she said. \u201cWe have made progress not because Islamophobia disappeared, but because Muslim New Yorkers organized in spite of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Howard Lutnick, US Secretary of Commerce<\/p>\n

Howard Lutnick, then CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald, should have been sitting at his desk on the 105th floor of the World Trade Center when the first plane hit the building on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n

Instead he was dropping his son off for his first day of kindergarten<\/a>, where he got delayed.<\/p>\n

Lutnick, who is now Commerce Secretary and one of President Trump\u2019s most trusted advisers, cheated death on Sept. 11, but he lost his brother and best friend. His financial firm took one of the heaviest blows. It lost nearly 700 employees, a tally that was the single biggest for any organization after the NYPD and FDNY.<\/p>\n

\"CommerceCommerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks during an event with President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n

In a tearful interview a few days later In a tearful interview a few days later, Lutnick described frantically racing between emergency rooms hoping to get staffers to find employees who might have survived. \u201cFind somebody on this list,\u201d he told them. \u201cI don\u2019t care who they are.’\u201d<\/p>\n

He ordered the firm to set aside 25% of its profits<\/a> over the next five years to support the survivors and their families.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo cap, no limit,\u201d Lutnick said. \u201cThe more we make, the more successful we can rebuild our company. We share it together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The attacks of Sept 11, 2001 claimed thousands of lives and shattered countless families, but the trauma of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1038952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[79462,5229,106408,18485,119306,175377,415646,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,79466,415647,247399,13226,117103,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-1038951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-9-11","tag-america","tag-andrew-giuliani","tag-anniversary","tag-ground-zero","tag-julie-menin","tag-kamar-samuel","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-september-11","tag-shoshana-hanif","tag-steve-fulop","tag-steve-witkoff","tag-terror","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117201785034228721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1038951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1038951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1038952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1038951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1038951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1038951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}