The Towers of Unetaneh Tokef

As we approach today, twenty-five years after September 2001 – which I wrote extensively about ten years after it happened, and again marking fifteen years – organizations like the Center for Constitutional Rights, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the National Constitution Center have all written about the affects of what Wikipedia politely calls the Collapse of the World Trade Center.

Today is also the beginning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and it on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that the Unetaneh Tokef is recited. Chabad.org calls it one of the most “stirring and evocative” prayers and sums up in a biblical way the events and aftermaths of 9/11.

On Rosh Hashanah it is inscribed, and on Yom Kippur it is sealed: how many shall pass on, and how many shall be born; who shall live, and who shall die; who in his time, and who before his time; who by fire and who by water; who by sword and who by beast; who by hunger and who by thirst; who by storm and who by plague; who by choking and who by stoning… Who shall rest, and who shall wander; who shall be tranquil and who shall be harassed; who shall be at peace and who shall suffer; who shall become poor, and who shall become rich; who shall fall and who shall rise… But repentance, prayer and charity revoke the evil decree!“

The legal and civil rights organizations mentioned earlier recognize the last twenty-five years, talking in different voices about the continued and expanding assaults on civil liberties and due process. While they all talk about solidarity, Manya Brachear Pashman, for The Forward, writes about that from a different perspective. Recognizing that today is the beginning of the High Holy Days for Jews, she writes about interfaith connections between Jews and Muslims following September 11, and the difficulties of maintaining those connections immediately after 9/11 when Palestinians struggled against oppression during the Second Intifada, and again when their struggle hit international news again after October 7, 2023.

I was in high school when 9/11 happened, and although I had a decent education in world affairs and the economic system I didn’t know that the Twin Towers existed until they “collapsed” that day. Looking back, September 11, 2001 is about the the capital system, which the Twin Towers represented, that decides in many ways if you shall die this year, in what manner you might die, who has the capacity to wander, and who will be harassed, who will be at peace, and who will suffer.

The location of the collapsed and destroyed World Trade Center now hosts the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. It pays tribute and respect to the thousands of people in New York who died. that day, or those who died or are suffering from the toxic chemicals released that day. What the Memorial and Museum doesn’t mention is the millions of people killed, harassed, or suffering because of the “War on Terror” our government continues to wage on people. The “racist” War on Terror, the Center for Constitutional Rights says, has allowed our government to construct a framework – a structure of institutions, laws, policies, practices, and directives, all bolstered by propaganda – that it is able to use against virtually anyone it decides to call a ‘terrorist’ or supportive of ‘terrorism.’

The government, backed by money that supports this, has a worrisome level of say in who shall live, how they shall live, whether they shall die, how they should die, and when.