Jamie Gartenberg Pila’s father was killed in the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks — six months before she was born. Now she’s determined to honor his memory by fighting the “same” enemy, as a soldier in the Israel Defense Forces battling Hamas.
Pila, 22, never knew her dad, James Gartenberg, who was killed while working on the 86th floor of the north tower on 9/11.
“I felt like I had more to give the world and to do a small part to fight terrorism, to contribute,” she told The Post. “I use his death as motivation to keep strong and keep fighting.”
A central New Jersey native, Pila moved to Israel four years ago, after graduating high school, and joined the IDF a few months later.
On duty in the south of Israel on Oct. 7, she said, “I laid on the ground while being shot at by the same terrorists that celebrated the murder of my dad.”
Now, she serves as a lone combat soldier, always carrying a precious gold locket with her dad’s picture and the inscription “Daddy’s Angel.”
“It’s in my pocket right now. I’ve carried it through my whole army service,” Jamie told The Post from Jerusalem on Wednesday, the 23rd anniversary of 9/11.
“The motivation — my whole life, I’ve seen what terrorism is firsthand,” she said. “Terrorist groups have different names, but it’s one goal. It’s hate against the free world, innocent civilians.
“October 7 happened against Jews, [but] people don’t understand it’s against the whole world,” she said.
On September 11, 2001, Pila’s mom Jill was three months pregnant when Gartenberg, 35, told her and their two-year-old daughter Nicole goodbye and headed to work as a commercial real estate investor at Julien J. Studley. It was to be his last day on the job, as he had taken a role at another firm.
After the first plane hit and smoke poured into his office, Gartenberg and an assistant desperately pushed at the stairwell door — but it was blocked by debris. Fire blocked their access to a second set of stairs.
He tried calling 911, but the line was busy. He called Jill at her job, but she wasn’t there yet so he left a message saying he loved her.
As friends, colleagues and family have recounted over the years, Gartenberg phoned several of them from the burning tower before it fell, telling them he was trapped and afraid. Heartbreakingly, he spoke live on WABC, giving firefighters directions for where to find him.
He eventually talked to Jill a few times, telling her he loved her and their family.
“When it gets tough, especially in the army, I think about him and how his life was taken. And that’s why I’m here,” Pila said.
During last week’s annual commemoration ceremony at the 9/11 Living Memorial in the Arazim Valley of Ramot in Jerusalem, Jamie’s stirring remarks about her dad and her mission in the fight against terror earned her a standing ovation.
The Israeli memorial, the only one in the world outside of the US that lists all the names of the fallen on 9/11, represents a “feeling of home.
“When I see my father’s name, it’s a feeling of home. I can just go there and sit and clear my mind.”
Her dad’s alma mater, University of Michigan, is now a hotbed of terrorist supporters, she said, where, instead of bonding over football, the bond is over the burning of American flags.
“It would break my dad’s heart to see that. It’s broken mine.”
Her New Jersey-based mom, Jill, who has since remarried and had two more children, told The Post from Jerusalem, that she’s “so proud” of her “heroine” daughter.
“So much about her is him,” Jill said of her late husband and their youngest daughter.
“If I can be the smallest part of helping someone not have to feel what it’s like to lose a loved one to terrorism, I’ll do everything,” Pila said. “I‘ve never felt safer than in Israel – as a person, as a Jew. As crazy as it sounds, I feel safest here. Even my own friends [in America], they don’t understand the situation, and are protesting stuff they haven’t learned about.”
