Sad Week

This week has been a terrible one for pedestrian accidents in New York, possibly due to weather-related conditions. Some of the most publicized victims in local news sources were women with strong Jewish ties.

First, a 25 year-old Jewish NYU graduate student was killed in a hit-and-run on her way home from atending a movie with her sister. According to the NY Post,

She was studying for a joint master's in nonprofit management and Jewish studies at NYU.

Engle also spent much of her free time as a volunteer. Apart from Jewish philanthropic organizations, the sisters were also devoted to helping fight AIDS after their dad died of the disease when Engle was 13.

... Engle, hailed for her generous spirit by friends and family, continued to give in death. Jupiter yesterday revealed her sister had donated some of her organs.

Then, 60 year-old philanthropist Andrea "Andy" Bronfman was killed while walking her dog in what seemed to be a weather-related accident. She was apparently hit with a glancing blow by a livery cab driver, and then struck fatally by an SUV. Bronfman has been eulogized for her good works here, here, here, here, and here. She was involved in many charities, both here and abroad.

And finally, yesterday, an elderly, but by all accounts vibrant, holocaust survivor was killed by a bus when she slipped on slipped ice and into the path of oncoming traffic.

Her flinty independence got Eva Schweitzer through Auschwitz, and it helped her go on even when she was the only one in her family who survived the war.

But yesterday, her son Jack said, her stubborn independence may have been a contributing factor in her death. Mrs. Schweitzer, a slight woman of 81 with striking blue eyes, was killed on a darkened street a half-hour before sunrise when she slipped on an icy patch at the intersection of East Gun Hill Road and Bainbridge Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx and was run over by the rear wheels of a bus pulling away from a bus stop, the police said.

Baruch Dayan HaEmet.