By Tzali Reicher, Chabad.org
For the tight-knit community of Charlotte, N.C., last week’s tragic aviation accident that took the lives of 67 people hit close to home.
On Wednesday evening, Jan. 29, American Eagle Flight 5342 was nearing the end of its journey from Wichita, Kan., to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., when it collided with a Black Hawk army helicopter. The crash sent the plane into the Potomac River, killing all 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the plane, as well as the three soldiers aboard the helicopter.
The flight was entirely staffed by a crew based in Charlotte, N.C.
Ian Douglas Epstein, 53, was the senior flight attendant on board. He was not originally scheduled to work on the ill-fated flight. Earlier in the week, he had adjusted his schedule to spend Sunday golfing, leading to his reassignment to the Wichita-to-Washington route.
The Jewish father of four tragically lost his life aboard the flight.
Not long after the rescue effort turned into a recovery one, Rabbi Mordechai Newman, who directs Chabad-Lubavitch of Alexandria-Arlington in Virginia, close to the crash site, and Rabbi Chesky Tenenbaum, director of the Jewish Uniformed Service Association of Maryland, visited the crash site together on the banks of the Potomac River and recited Psalms together in the merit of the victims’ souls.
Once Epstein’s body was recovered, Newman helped facilitate his dignified transfer to North Carolina, ensuring every step followed Jewish law, exactly how Epstein previously made clear he wanted.
The importance of a proper burial in Jewish law and tradition cannot be underestimated. “For dust you are, and to dust you will return,” G-d told Adam, the first human being. Chabad.org’s extensive section on Death and Mourning quotes King Solomon, who said: “And the earth returns to the land as it was, and the spirit returns to G-d, who gave it.” The article explains that “the next stage in the continuing saga of a human life is that the body should return to the earth, the source of all physical life, and be reunited with it, just as the soul returns to its Divine root.”
On Wednesday, Feb. 5, following a traditional service at Chabad of Charlotte, Epstein will be laid to rest in the city’s Hebrew Cemetery.
