Midwood Street Co-Named for Moshe Berkowitz, Killed by Reckless Driver

By Reuvain Borchardt

MIDWOOD — One hundred friends and relatives of Moshe Yehuda Berkowitz, z”l, gathered on a Midwood street corner Sunday afternoon, for the co-naming of the street where, 13 years ago, the 25-year-old was killed by a reckless driver.

“I still think about him literally every day,” said one friend, Boruch Hatanian, who flew in from Florida for the occasion. “I see his face shining.”

On the night of November 29, 2010, Moshe was driving home from an evening out with yeshiva friends when he was struck and killed by another car at Ocean Avenue and Avenue N. The other driver, 23-year-old Anel Kolenovic, was speeding, had run a red light, and had consumed alcohol prior to the crash.

Kolenovic was convicted at trial of second-degree manslaughter, and sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison. He was paroled after having served five years and eight months.

On Sunday morning, the corner of Ocean and N was co-named Moshe Berkowitz Way, capping a year-long effort by Moshe’s friend Izzy Weiss, who had worked with Community Board 14 to get the street naming approved.

Weiss said his motivation for the street naming stemmed from a desire to publicize the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as to honor his friend’s memory.

The gathering of friends and relatives young and old “truly shows how important Moshe was to so many people, and how he affected so many lives,” said Weiss.

Moshe was a student at Brooklyn College, hoping to become a lawyer. He learned in Yeshiva Ohr Yitzchok, where he also taught secular studies and mentored struggling younger boys.

“One of the boys that he mentored at the time was an orphan boy,” recalled Rabbi Pinchas Wallerstein of Ohr Yitzchok, at the event Sunday. That boy is currently mentoring ten boys, Rabbi Wallerstein said, “and he holds that he owes his life to Moshe. Moshe’s legacy lives on.”

Friends have honored the memory of Moshe Yehuda ben Yaakov HaKohen in other ways, as well.

On Moshe’s first yahrtzeit, Ohr Yitzchak dedicated a sefer Torah in his memory, which is used on Shabbatons for struggling boys — an event the yeshiva holds 20 times a year, and on which Moshe used to serve as a counselor.

Each year on Smchas Torah, Moshe’s father, ybl”c, Jack, who is still dealing with the effects of a stroke suffered in 1998, comes to yeshiva to dance with his son’s sefer Torah.

Hatanian, the friend who flew in from, Florida, said, “I deal with that loss [of Moshe] every day,” but that he has chosen to learn lessons and improve his life and those around him.

“For me it really proved the point that life is very, very fragile. I was with him a day and a half before he passed,” Hatanian said. “You never know how long people are going to be here for. I try to take that and make that into a positive and really work on the relationships that we have on a day-to day-basis.”

“No matter what,” said Weiss, the friend who worked for this memorial to a young man whose life touches so many, “we’ll never forget Moshe.”

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rborchardt@hamodia.com