The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

The book’s title expresses a central theme to which the book repeatedly returns. People from all over the world came to Gander on September 11, 2001, brought together by unprecedented and unanticipated events. The experienced changed their lives in ways they could never have expected.

The experience of Rabbi Levi Sudak exemplifies this in a powerful way. He shared that he was housed at the school, where officials hung a world map and invited passengers to pin where they were from. Eithne Smith noted that 40 different countries had pins, meaning that the people staying at that school alone represented 40 countries, filling the halls “with the sounds of different languages” (102). Rabbi Sudak added that Gander was home to only one Jewish person, and no one thought to request kosher meals in advance, so the Orthodox Jewish passengers had not eaten for more than 24 hours. When a passenger informed Smith of the problem, she arranged for the delivery of kosher meals and for the Orthodox Jewish passengers to have access to the school’s faculty lounge, which had a refrigerator, sink, and stove; Rabbi Sudak transformed it into a kosher kitchen.

Rabbi Sudak was traveling from London to New York to visit the grave of Lubavitcher movement leader Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.