Brooklyn family, artist celebrate life of 9/11 victim

A local artist is helping a Brooklyn family remember a loved one who was lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Flatlands resident Abe Zelmanowitz died on 9/11 the same way he lived, by putting others

News 12 Staff

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Sep 11, 2008, 9:41 PM

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Updated 5,880 days ago

A local artist is helping a Brooklyn family remember a loved one who was lost in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Flatlands resident Abe Zelmanowitz died on 9/11 the same way he lived, by putting others before himself, says his brother Jack Zelmanowitz.

"I said to him, 'Please, get out of there as soon as you can. Looks bad. Get outta there,' " Jack Zelmanowitz says he told his brother. "He said, 'Don't worry, I'll get out.' "

Jack says his brother refused to leave because he would not abandon his friend, Ed Beay, who was a quadriplegic. They were on the 27th floor of the North Tower and never made it out.

"The pain is still there, but the pride we have that such a human being was part of our lives is the thing that keeps us going," says Jack Zelmanowitz.

Now local artist Jodi Reznik is honoring Abe's sacrifice with a portrait.

"From everything I read, from everything the family told me, he was just about warmth and helping wherever he could and that's what I really wanted to capture," Reznik says.

Reznik says she will officially present the portrait to the Zelmanowitz family on the seventh anniversary of the attacks Thursday.