New York Daily News

Rabbi killed in plane crash

- BY RICH SCHAPIRO

A PROMINENT rabbi described as an “incredible mensch” was killed in a small plane crash in Orange County on Saturday, authoritie­s said.

Aaron Panken, the president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute, was piloting the 1946 Aeronca plane when it went down in a wooded area in Wawayanda.

A passenger — flight instructor Frank Reiss, 65 — was injured in the crash. He was receiving treatment at Orange Regional Medical Center in Wallkill, according to MidHudson News.

The bright yellow aircraft plunged to the ground about one mile from Randall Airport, where it had taken off.

Photos from the scene showed it wedged among trees and bushes, with its tail in the air.

The 53-year-old Panken was remembered as a deep thinker and generous soul who touched lives in the U.S. and Israel.

“This is simply devastatin­g news,” Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel, wrote on Twitter.

“Rabbi Aaron Panken was a brilliant Jewish leader, an incredible mensch, and a dear friend.”

Panken led Hebrew Union College — a Reform seminary with campuses in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles and New York — since 2014.

The Mamaroneck-based rabbi is survived by his wife, Lisa Messinger; his children, Eli and Samantha; and his parents, Beverly and Peter, according to the Jewish Telegraphi­c Agency.

“I will forever have the bright, thoughtful and forward-looking image of his face in my heart,” his friend Asher Lopatin wrote on Facebook.

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