guide to the jewplexed

Kosher Diner Brothers to the Rescue

Since the Boston bombings, as we sit at home and quietly review on our computer and TV screens the photos of that terrible day--especially the ones that show individuals rushing in to help-- many of us have wondered what would we do if circumstance presented us with that split second decision: would we become a first responder?

Saving a life is a mitzvah. But in a dangerous setting, would we run to do it? Or, would we run away? Near Chicago, not quite a week after the Boston Marathon explosions, a pair of brothers faced this choice.

Daniel and Ken Hechtman were on the expressway, around 9 pm, driving home from a long day at work at Ken's Diner - their popular kosher restaurant in Skokie, Illinois that Ken opened in 1976 -when a semi- truck weaving in the lanes in front of them, struck a Ford Taurus and burst into flames.

According to Daniel, who I spoke with a few days after the crash, the brothers pulled over on the busy expressway and ran to the scene to help. "The flames were all around the car," he said.

"You don't think about it," he said, when I asked him what was going through his mind at the time. "At first you think this is for someone else to do. A policeman or a fireman," he said. "I am not a hero, I did not want to," he added. "But I knew that I had to," said Daniel who is the younger of the two brothers.

Daniel helped pull the truck driver--who was limp and unconscious out of the cab. A passenger, the driver's wife, was able to escape on her own.

His brother Ken, who had gone around to the back of the crash to stop traffic, heard screaming coming from under the truck.

"At first I thought it was a man," said Daniel, who through the intense heat and smoke had seen someone in the car.
Ken (L) and Daniel Hechtman

It was a woman, her hair was on fire, and with her there was a young girl whose back was covered in flames. According to an account in the Chicago Tribune, Ken managed to grab the two from underneath and put out the flames. With cars speeding by the accident, he carried the little girl across the expressway.

"I was about twenty feet away when the gas tank blew," said Daniel, who spoke haltingly about his recent experience. "The tires blew off the truck. It was raining tires and I was almost hit," he added.

According to the Illinois State Police, four people were hurt, one critically.

The girl, Gianna Hernandez, and her mother Gloria Garcia, suffered second and third degree burns. Gloria's sister, Maria Garcia told the Sun-Times that doctors expect the mother and daughter to recover. "I really want to thank those brothers," she said, choking up.

Daniel, who after the rescue was having trouble breathing, was taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation, and was released around 1 am. "The mother and daughter were in the next room," said Daniel. "It was good we had a chance to talk to them," he added.

I asked Daniel, who when I reached him by phone was back at work at the diner, what had happened since that night. "My wife put it on Facebook," replied Hechtman. "I'm not that comfortable with all this," he added, referring to all the attention.

His brother Ken had been interviewed by several news outlets including TV. More comfortable, perhaps, for Daniel had been that since the story made the news, customers and friends had been coming in to the diner or calling to wish him and his brother "Yasher Koach," "May you have strength," said Daniel. He also realized that since both he and his brother wear kippas, others at the scene knew the two rescuers were Jewish - something he felt was important.

"I think God was happy with us," he said.
Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate. In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."