On September 11, 2001, nearly 3,000 people from the United States, Israel, and more than 90 nations were murdered in an act of unimaginable hatred.
Twenty-five years later, it is still difficult to comprehend the scale of that loss.
Behind every number was a life. A mother or father who never came home. A son or daughter whose future was stolen. A child who would grow up knowing a loved one only through photographs, stories, and memories passed from one generation to the next.
The youngest victim was Christine Lee Hanson, just two-and-a-half years old, traveling with her parents on what was supposed to be a family trip to Disneyland.
The oldest was Robert Norton, 85, traveling with his wife to attend their son’s wedding.
Christine and Robert were not soldiers. They were ordinary people living ordinary lives.
They were us.
That is why remembrance matters.
In the hills of Jerusalem stands a memorial that carries a profound promise: that every person murdered on September 11 will be remembered.
The 9/11 Living Memorial, created through the generosity of Edward Blank and his family and the Bronka Stavsky Rabin Weintraub Trust, is the only memorial outside the United States that bears the names of every victim of the attacks.
There is something deeply moving about standing in Israel, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and seeing those names engraved thousands of miles from Ground Zero.
It is a reminder that grief knows no borders.
Neither does compassion.
September 11 was an attack not only on buildings or even on one country. It was an attack on the values shared by free societies: democracy, tolerance, human dignity, and the conviction that life is sacred.
Those values bind the United States and Israel together.
And this memorial was not built out of revenge. It was built from a belief in life.
At its base rests a piece of steel recovered from the ruins of the World Trade Center. Once, that steel stood amid devastation and destruction. Today, it stands surrounded by trees, families, students, and the living landscape of Jerusalem.
There is a lesson in that transformation.
Evil can destroy buildings.
It can take lives.
But it cannot destroy the values of those who choose courage over fear, freedom over tyranny, and life over death.
That belief is deeply woven into the work of Jewish National Fund-USA and our partners in Israel.
We plant trees whose shade we may never personally enjoy.
We strengthen communities not simply for the people living there today, but for children and grandchildren yet to be born.
We are helping rebuild and strengthen Israel’s North and South because Zionism has never been merely about enduring the present. It is about building the future.
That same philosophy is why students from Muss High School in Israel visit this memorial. American teenagers spending a semester in Israel stand before the names of those killed on September 11 and encounter a lesson
Russell F. Robinson is CEO of Jewish National Fund-USA. This op-ed was adapted from a speech Russell delivered at the 2026 9/11 Memorial Ceremony in Israel.
