By Alexander Dworkowitz
A 19-year-old rabbi’s son from Kew Gardens Hills was killed in an early-morning car crash last Thursday when his 1994 Ford was struck from behind on a wide thoroughfare in Fresh Meadows, police said.
Yaeer Nissanian, of 68th Drive, died in the accident, which occurred at the corner of 75th Avenue and 183rd Street at about 1:48 a.m.
Abraham Benishay, 19, the passenger in Nissanian’s Ford, was taken to New York Hospital Medical Center Queens in stable condition, police said.
A 2002 Acura hit the Ford, but the 19-year-old driver and 20-year-old passenger were not injured, police said.
No arrests were made and no summonses were issued, police said. Authorities continued to investigate.
Nissanian’s car was traveling eastbound when it was hit from behind by the Acura, police said. The Ford was sent crashing over the road’s median, slamming into a tree, authorities said.
Nissanian, a yeshiva graduate, was the son of an Orthodox Jewish rabbi associated with a temple in Kew Gardens Hills.
The Nissanians flew back to Israel, where they had once lived, to bury their son, neighbors said.
Nissanian died just days after Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, and a night before Succoth, the Jewish celebration of the harvest.
Nissanian lived on a tree-lined street of brick, two-story homes. That section of Kew Gardens Hills is one of the city’s largest areas of Orthodox Jews, many of whom emigrated from Eastern Europe and Israel. The Nissanian home is just of Main Street, which is dominated by Kosher stores with signs in Hebrew.
“So polite, such a nice boy,” said a woman named Ksenia, who lives across the street from the Nissanians. She said Nissanian was always willing to help residents of the block with chores.
Ksenia said many on the block mourned the death in the Nissanian household.
“I know the whole family is very respectable — a very good family,” she said.
Reach reporter Alexander Dworkowitz by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 141.
