Chabad Alum Plunges to Death

algemeiner.com

An Ivy League educated 28 year old Jewish woman plunged to her death on Thursday in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.

Stephanie Becker, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and was a Co-Chair of the Chabad affiliated Steinhardt Jewish Heritage Programs New York Gala this year, fell from the 30th floor and left no note behind according to authorities.

“She fell 30 stories to a parapet, just outside the building’s fifth-floor gym,” Police said according to the New York Post.

“She went to Jewish school and came to Chabad all the time. She was honored at Lubavitch House at Penn as an alumnus as well, and was a very sweet, happy person,” a friend at UPenn told The Algemeiner.

Originally from Stamford, Connecticut, Becker was a consultant at IBM while committing her time outside of work to Jewish causes.

“She went with us on Birthright, she was a wonderful, happy, beloved friend to many, she was a social linchpin, somebody that everybody knew and related to, she was the best,” said Rabbi Menachem Schmidt, Executive Director of Lubavitch House at Penn and President of Chabad on Campus.

“I saw her last week because she used to meet with students for our mentoring event in Manhattan. She always came to Shabbos dinners,” the rabbi said in an interview with The Algemeiner.

“It is really, really hard to understand this,” said the Rabbi, who had known her for 10 years, “I feel sick, we all cared for her very much and I want people to remember her positively.”

“It is a terrible tragedy,” he added, “she was the kind of person that everyone would want to be like. We miss her very much and our hearts go out to the family.”

The Algemeiner obtained a portion of a speech Becker gave at a Steinhardt JHP Alumni Gala.

“During New Student Orientation, with the high holidays approaching, the rabbis were there to make sure we knew that the Jewish holidays were a time to celebrate (and they knew how to celebrate a good time, too),” she said.

“At the time, I could barely comprehend the impact that these rabbis and this organization would have on my life, but I could taste the passionate spirit and moral fiber behind the wild Jewish dancing and knew this was something in which I had to get involved.”

The incident on Thursday occurred at 55 West 26th Street at around 8:15 a.m.

“At work, Becker was an expert in advertising on video games, and co-authored a 2008 article on the subject in AdWeek,” the New York Post reported.