Looked Forward to Becoming an American

By Olivia Winslow | STAFF WRITER

September 19, 2001

Hagag Shefi, a victim in the WTC disaster. (Handout)

Hagay Shefi was "proud to be almost a citizen of the United States," Shefi's father, Dov, recalled yesterday. "He admired this great state" and was just "one step away" from becoming a citizen.

But on Sept. 11, Shefi, 35, was among the thousands who perished at the World Trade Center when terrorists attacked.

That the Israeli immigrant, who leaves behind a wife and two children, a 5-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter, in Tenafly, N.J., should die because of terrorist acts in the United States and not in his strife-torn homeland was not lost on his father, a retired lawyer and former Israeli diplomat.

"The tragedy of fate" is what Dov Shefi called it. "He was here in one of the most safest places in the world, I would say." But yet, he was not safe.

Dov Shefi, who rushed to the United States from Israel last week as soon as air travel bans were lifted, said his previous visits to the United States were filled with joy. Now, he said, "We mourn."

Hagay Shefi, co-founder and chief executive of GoldTier Technologies Inc., was at the World Trade Center in Tower One on the 106th floor. "It wasn't his own office," Dov Shefi said. "His office was located in New Jersey, but he came [to the World Trade Center] the day before and the same day of the disaster to participate in a conference as a lecturer to introduce products of his company," which he said provides software to banks, insurance companies and other businesses.

About 17 minutes after the first attack, Dov Shefi said his son phoned his wife, Sigal. "He said that he's in [a] very bad situation," Dov Shefi said. He didn't want to disclose much else about the conversation, saying what transpired between husband and wife, some of which even he was not privy to, was private.

He described his son as a man of "personal and professional integrity" who had distinguished himself in academics, earning a master's degree in business administration at Bar-Ilan University in Israel in 1989, and as an officer when he served in the Israeli Army about a decade ago. He said his son later climbed the corporate ladder, capping his ascent with the formation of his own company with partners.

For now, Hagay Shefi is buried close to home in New Jersey as his widow contemplates remaining in the United States, where the couple has lived for about eight years, or returning to Israel.

"We decided to make some kind of temporary burial here [but also] to preserve the opportunity to move the body, if and when we decide to do," Dov Shefi said.

But whatever decision is ultimately made about his son's final resting place, Dov Shefi said he shared his son's admiration for the United States, saying "it will never be diminished. We just hope the retaliation will be soon and effective."