Mourners filled Central Synagogue Wednesday morning for the funeral of Julia Hyman, the 27-year-old Jewish woman who was one of four people killed in Monday’s mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan.
“We gather with hearts shattered and spirits heavy, struggling to make sense of a world that has lost someone so luminous, so full of promise and so deeply loved,” said Hyman’s uncle, Rob Pittman, during the memorial service.
Others who spoke during the service led by Rabbi Maurice Salth included Hyman’s cousins and groups of friends from the Bronx’s Riverdale Country School, Tripp Lake Camp in Maine and Cornell University.
“Let us be careful about trying to make this tragedy feel better by saying such things as, ‘At least she went quickly,’ or, ‘At least we had her for 27 years,’” Salth said. “There is nothing that can make this tragedy better or logical.”
Hyman was working late in her role as an associate for Rudin Management, the real estate firm that owns the office building at 345 Park Ave. where the shooting took place at the end of a work day. The alleged gunman, who police said may have been targeting the NFL, which is housed in the building, killed four people before turning his gun on himself. Two of the victims, Hyman and Wesley LePatner, a philanthropist and Blackstone executive, were members of Upper East Side Jewish communities.
Hyman, a Manhattan native, graduated from Cornell in 2020 with a major in hotel and restaurant administration and a minor in real estate. Before joining Rudin last November, she worked as an associate and analyst at Sagehall Partners, a private investment firm.
At Wednesday’s funeral, Salth shared reflections from Hyman’s family, whom he’d spoken with the day before about her “remarkable, beautiful life.”
“She was deeply loyal to her family and friends, and devoted to them,” Salth said. “Just one of the many examples [given] yesterday was that when [Julia] was 5, her mom, Nancy, was struggling with an illness, and it was Julia that tended to Nancy. Again, she was only 5.”
Hyman was mourned as “the most beloved person in any room, field or camp [she] stepped in.” (LinkedIn)
Salth said that Hyman’s “deeply caring” nature extended to “causes she thought deserved support,” like after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
“Afterwards, time and time again, she reminded people of the facts, and the tragedy of this horrific day,” Salth said. “She took a stand for Israel, and continued to do so during what has been a deeply challenging and demanding time, for Israel and the Jewish people.”
The family shared that donations could be made in Julia’s memory to Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency service, and Friends of the IDF, a nonprofit that supports soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces.
A group of nearly a dozen of Hyman’s friends from Riverdale Country School, which she attended for 13 years, spoke at the service.
They described her as a friend who “made us feel safe and loved” and “had a hug that could fix anything.” They touted her accomplishments as an athlete who was a captain in three different varsity sports, a color war captain at summer camp and a Dean’s List student. They recalled Hyman’s fandom of the United States women’s soccer team and Jewish singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams.
“You were effortlessly chic and the most beloved person in any room, field or camp you stepped in,” said a former classmate. “And if that wasn’t enough, every boy in our class had been in love with you since the age of five.”
One friend shared that she and Hyman had attended Hebrew school together sang “Shalom Rav,” a prayer that translates to “abundant peace,” at her bat mitzvah. The group of Riverdale alumni then sang “Shalom Rav” in unison.
“We are devastated for Julia’s friends and family, including her parents and sister Ali, a 2017 graduate of the College of Human Ecology,” Cornell’s President Michael Kotlikoff said in a statement Tuesday.
“I urge you to look around this room,” Pittman said, addressing Hyman’s parents, Nanci and Craig. “Absorb how many lives your little girl managed to impact, and the remarkable person she turned out to be.”
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