Midwood, NY – A Brooklyn man was remembered as a devoted teacher who would tutor students for free if their families couldn’t afford it, friends said.
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Moshe Berkowitz, 25, died Monday night after a boozed-up driver ran a red light and slammed into him on Ocean Ave. in Brooklyn, police said.
Students at Yeshiva Birchas Shmuel, where he taught middle school English, bravely memorialized Berkowitz Wednesday at his funeral. Joseph Minzer, 13, was one of dozens of mourners who packed the Yeshiva Ohr Yitzchok in Midwood.
“He was the nicest, greatest person I’ve ever known,” Joseph said. “He was always trying to help me with my problems and with things I didn’t understand.”
Berkowitz was killed when Anel Kolenovic, 23, barreled into him head-on about 11:35 p.m. Kolenovic was charged with DWI, manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and ignoring a red light.
Police were investigating whether the suspected drunk driver and his friends were racing before the crash.
A witness said the driver and a passenger reeked of alcohol at the scene, and a police source put Kolenovic’s blood alcohol level at more than double the legal limit.
“We miss seeing him around,” Orel Partush, 13, said of the beloved teacher. “He was a very lively person, always energetic. He would always help people and play sports with us.”
Known to students as “Moe,” Berkowitz was a great football player and liked to break dance at school events.
His father, Jack Berkowitz, said his son has gone “to a better place.”
“I’m going to miss you,” the dad said. “Even when I was at work, I didn’t care about anything else but seeing you.”
I didn’t know moshe well ( enough) wish I knew him better… listening to the speeches by his levaya just reiterated how all his friends felt about him…
He was as special as they come…He will be missed
NYSID: 01785737Y
DIN: 08R2832
Inmate Name: KOLENOVIC,ANEL
Aggregated Minimum Sentence: 01-06
Aggregated Maximum Sentence: 03-00
Release Date: 11/20/2009
Release Type: CR
Housing/Release Facility: ALTONA
Parole Eligibility Date: 5/20/2009
Conditional Release Date: 11/20/2009
Maximum Expiration Date: 11/20/2010
Parole ME Date: 11/20/2010
Post Release Supervision ME Date:
Parole Board Discharge Date: 11/20/2010
Crime of Conviction Class County of Commitment
GRAND LARCENY-4 E NASSAU
BD’E. May the family find comfort from this horrible ordeal. Heartbreaking….
Moshe you touched all of our hearts, we miss you
I do not like when the news release uses the expression “boozed up”. It sounds humorous, or playful. Drunk sounds like a better term to use. Nothing ‘cute’ about drunk driving while ‘boozed up’ driving suggests a behavior that is less criminal. What do you fellow readers say?
Does anyone know is this the Jack Berkowitz that is very close to MBD? Just trying to see if I know who it is.
he was in brooklyn college. really popular guy. so sad.
I knew him very well. have known him since he’s about 10 years old. His family is absolutely devastated. His father just sat shiva a few weeks ago for his brother, and my close friend, Yossi. Just thinking of another shiva in the same house makes me cry. Instead of a chanuka party motzei shabbos, I’m going to spend my motzei shabbos with them.
Mo Berkowitz, as the NCSYers called him, was 25 and inspired tens if not hundreds of teens to feel excited about their yahadus, Torah, and connection to Hashem, and still is. He had this magnetism about him that the kids flocked to. He came from a very difficult family life and upbringing but never showed a hint of it. Everyone else’s problems were so much more important to him. He was a self made guy. In the words of Rabbi Moishe Zuker from NCSY, he had every excuse for failure at every stage at his life, every chance to give up and become nothing, but instead he accomplished more in 25 years than many do in 75. He met public school teens at Starbucks weekly and showed them how you can make anything holy, even coffee. Each kid got a free drink and drank in the words of Torah that radiated from him. None of use ever heard him complain, although believe me, he had quite some reasons to, and he had the most contagious smile glowing off his face always. Moshe Yehudah ben Yaakov Hakohen had rushed to daven at Yeshivas Ohr Yitzchak that night where he learned on a regular basis with two younger boys despite his crazily busy schedule hours earlier. http://www.nyncsy.com/moshe-b.html