Surgeon’s 9/11 Sculpture on Display at Mt. Kisco Village Hall
Like many doctors and other health care practitioners, Dr. Ezriel Kornel donated his time to assist the injured at Ground Zero following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
While Kornel, a neurosurgeon, has vivid memories of the day, he also wants others to never forget what happened.
A sculpture created by Kornel, a Bedford Hills resident whose practice includes work at Northern Westchester Hospital, is on display at Mount Kisco Village Hall. He hopes to keep the memories of those who perished alive for local residents, particularly children.
“There have been many memorials dedicated to firefighters, policemen and others who perished on 9/11,” Kornel said. “I wanted to construct this sculpture in honor of the health care professionals and volunteers who came down to help that day.”
He created two Plexiglas towers to represent the skyscrapers and filled them with items that hold symbolic significance to him. In one tower, Kornel, who treated victims with two nurses and an anesthesiologist, included his gloves and mask, along with an Islamic prayer rug, as both a reference to “the foundation of what brought the towers down and the power of prayer,” he said.
He also brought back his shoes that were covered with ash and never cleaned. One of the nurses picked up a couple of pieces of rubble, which he decided to bring home, and paper.
“There was paper everywhere,” Kornel recalled of the scene around the fallen towers. “It was all ash, paper and shoes.”
Other items used by health care practitioners who aided the victims were also included.
The sculpture also contains objects with important symbolic value: an apple “offering us the knowledge of evil, suffering and pain;” a watch set to the time of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center; a violin with a candle symbolizing “the music stopped when the fire burned;” an American flag bound and coiled representing “the snake ready to strike back at the foot that tried to bring it to its death” and an Islamic prayer rug, which is “like a magic carpet, when used for a righteous purpose can elevate all to a more beautiful and loving world.”
Kornel said he was determined to find a prominent spot for his artwork. It is on display indefinitely at village hall.
“I wanted it to be in a public place,” he said.
