Schonbrun never wants to be the person he was before 9/11

New York City businessman Ari Schonbrun led, by his own account, “a boring life” for most of his adult years — until Sept. 11, 2001.

He works for the Cantor Fitzgerald brokerage company that had been located in Tower One of the World Trade Center. On the morning of the terrorist attack, he was on the 78th floor waiting for the elevator to take him to his office on the 101st floor.

At 8:46 a.m., his life changed. The building shook, the lights went out and the floor filled with smoke. As he looked for a way to get out, he came upon a co-worker with third degree burns. He guided her down 78 flights of stairs, escaping the building minutes before the tower fell.

In commemoration of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Schonbrun will talk about his experiences on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2 p.m., at the Peltz Center for Jewish Life, 2233 W. Mequon Rd. in Mequon.

In a telephone interview, Schonbrun said he first began speaking about these matters “a couple of weeks” after the event. He said some friends were planning a fundraising event for a yeshiva and wanted to hold a panel discussion featuring people who had been involved or affected by 9/11.

Schonbrun was the last to speak, and said he found the previous speakers “a tough act to follow.” However, not only did people compliment him afterward, but the yeshiva’s rabbi later invited him to speak to the yeshiva’s students. Then the mother of one of the yeshiva boys called him to speak at another event.

“It snowballed,” Schonbrun said. He has spoken “hundreds” of times all over the U.S., plus in Israel and Great Britain.

He is “very willing to do it,” even though sometimes it can be emotionally wrenching to recall those memories.

A few weeks ago, he said he spoke at an event for Aish HaTorah in New York; and before his talk, the organizers showed a 10-minute video of the events of that day. “That was very difficult. I don’t know why,” he said.

Nevertheless, “I initially started doing it because it was kind of therapeutic for me,” Schonbrun said. “It helped me deal with the events.”

Speaking also helped him deal with the losses. He said that Cantor Fitzgerald had about 1,000 employees working the World Trade Center, of which 658 died in the attack. “I lost a lot of friends that day,” he said.

But now, “I don’t want people to forget what happened,” and he is afraid they are doing so, especially in New York City.

“New York was a different place” prior to the attack he said. “It changed after, but now it has changed back. I see it in people I know.

“People had changed after the attack. They became nicer. There was tragedy and a reuniting of people. Differences were set aside, they were there for one another.

“That lasted for a couple of years. Today, they have lost it; they are the same people they were before. That for me is very difficult.”

All the more difficult, Schonbrun said, because “I’ve totally changed, and I never want to go back to being the person I was before. I feel I’ve changed for the better and I like who I’ve become.

“As clichéd as it may sound, I think I’ve become a kinder and gentler person. I used to fly off the handle.” He also said he wasn’t always available for his five children, but “I’m there for my children today, no matter what. They come first.”

“There’s more to life than just money,” Schonbrun said. “People need to understand. That’s one of the things I bring out in my talks.”

He also has discovered that his speaking does help others change their lives, as many have told him in letters and e-mails, he said. “I didn’t realize I had that capacity. That’s pretty big.”

Schonbrun is a native of New York City. He lived there until he was 14, when he moved with his parents and three siblings to Israel.

He studied economics and accounting at Bar Ilan University, returned to New York when he was 21 and married his wife Joyce when he was 27. He has worked for Cantor Fitzgerald since 1993 and is now a director there.

He said he was raised Modern Orthodox, but has become more religious. His mother’s family is affiliated with the Lubavitch Chasidic movement; in fact, his mother’s brother is Rabbi Dovid Rapoport, spiritual leader of Congregation Agudas Achim Chabad in Mequon.

Admission to Schonbrun’s talk, “Miracles & Fate on Floor 78,” is free. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call 262-242-2235, Ext. 204, or visit www.chabadmequon.org.