It should have been a routine solo flight for 18-year-old student pilot Daniel Perelman. He had flown solo before and the take-off from Milwaukee’s Timmerman Airport on May 26 was uneventful. Only a short while later, Perelman radioed the tower: “Reporting engine failure. It’s not working.” The Cessna crashed into a yard, and Perelman was transported to the hospital in critical condition. On May 28, he passed away.

Perelman was a bright young man, well-liked by all, Fraidy Brook, co-director of Chabad of Waukesha-Brookfield, tells Chabad.org. Perelman and his family—his parents, Benny and Ana, and his sister, Lola—are members of the suburban Wisconsin Chabad community, and Brook and her husband, Rabbi Levi Brook, knew Daniel since he was 9. “Daniel was at the top of his class,” Fraidy Brook says. “He was very curious, always learning, always achieving in every area.” She remembers a younger Daniel displaying “critical thinking skills, challenging the rabbi,” who taught him for his bar mitzvah, asking questions that more mature people wouldn’t have thought of.

“He was heart and mind,” she says, “a product of his parents.” Brook describes his personality as “giving, loving and warm. His friends looked up to him and adored him; he was one of a kind.”

She recalls a memorable incident that happened this past Chanukah: Daniel was driving past the Chabad center one stormy night when he noticed that the large menorah on the front lawn had been knocked over in a storm. He righted the heavy, metal menorah and sent the rabbi a photo. “We figured we’d get to it in the morning,” Fraidy Brook says, but Perelman wasn’t going to wait. “It bothered him so much to see a menorah on the ground.”

This year was Perelman’s first away from home, as a freshman at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., but he found a home away from home on campus at The Tannenbaum Chabad House in Evanston, which serves Jewish students at Northwestern. He began frequenting Chabad right away.

“He relished the experience,” remembers Rabbi Mendy Weg of the Tannenbaum Chabad House. “He became a real part of it.” Weg says that Perelman was an “active participant” at Chabad. “He made others feel comfortable; he made it his business to reach out to others. He was a community builder; he enjoyed Yiddishkeit and didn’t keep it to himself.”

Seeing Chabad of Waukesha-Brookfield's menorah on the ground, Daniel put it back up. “It bothered him so much to see a menorah on the ground,” says Fraidy Brook.
Seeing Chabad of Waukesha-Brookfield's menorah on the ground, Daniel put it back up. “It bothered him so much to see a menorah on the ground,” says Fraidy Brook.

“Our primary objective at Chabad is to be a warm home for Jewish students on campus, and Daniel championed those values,” he says. “He helped create that for other students.” Weg adds that just several weeks ago, Chabad completed remodeling, and Perelman volunteered to help clean up and prep the space for the first event.

The Tannenbaum Chabad House held a memorial event on May 30, giving students and friends a safe space to grieve, share memories and connect with one another. “Most of the time, it was silent as different friends spoke about Daniel,” says Weg. “We also studied a mishnah in his memory, and people wrote down memories for us to give to the family.”

As those who knew him grieve privately, Fraidy Brook wants to take the feeling of loss and pain and “channel it to positive action—not just for ourselves, but for the entire community, for everyone whose lives he touched.” With the input of the Perelman family, Chabad of Waukesha-Brookfield launched the Deeds for Daniel Memorial Drive site, where friends, family—and even strangers—choose a good deed to do for Daniel. Visitors can sign up to “Spend some extra time with somebody who is alone” or “Study something extra today” among other options, as well as give their original resolutions.

“Daniel was only here for 30 weeks, but the feedback coming from faculty, students and the entire Northwestern community about their interactions with him says so much about him and the values he held,” says Weg. “It’s going to remain with us forever.”

Students at Northwestern wrote their memories of Daniel Perelman for Chabad to send to his family.
Students at Northwestern wrote their memories of Daniel Perelman for Chabad to send to his family.