Hundreds of mourners stood outside the Congregation Kehilath Jeshurn on the Upper East Side Friday to say goodbye to one of the New York students killed in a Honduras bus crash.
Friends and family of Daniella Moffson gathered on 85th St. and Lexington Ave. for an outdoor service for the young Columbia University student.
Moffson, 21, was killed along with two other Columbia students while on a charity mission in Central America.
Her father, Michael Moffson, gave an emotional eulogy at the start of the service, friends said.
“The whole family is devastated and the community is broken up. It was hard to watch them in that much pain. She was such a special young woman. Our hearts break for them,” said family friend Adena Berkowitz.
The grieving friend said Daniella’s Orthodox reglion was a driving force behind her desire to visit Honduras and help the less fortunate.
“Her religiosity was so central to her life, and she did it in a way that wasn’t judgmental of other people whose beliefs differed from hers,” she said.
HONDURAS BUS CRASH CAUSED BY HUMAN ERROR
Daniella’s father told the crowd she had undertaken the trip at his urging — as a reward for her school efforts.
“Her father spoke about how she was such a giving person, beautiful inside and out. He had suggested that, because she’s premed, and they work so hard, to take some time off. He told her, go to South Africa, where his side of the family is from. She insisted on going to Honduras,” Berkowitz said.
Another family friend, Corine Kirshenbaum, said Daniella’s family and especially her father wanted the young woman to realize her dream — which was also to be a doctor.
Daniella had traveled to Honduras as part of Columbia University’s Medical Brigade program, a health and international development organization.
She and her friends Olivia Varley Erhardt, 20, and Columbia medical center nurse practitioner Abigail Flanagan, 45, were killed Wednesday when the bus they were traveling in veered off a steep cliff into a ravine near the capital city of Tegucigalpa.
The group was on its way to the airport to fly home.
“She was beautiful and sweet. She was such a great child, such a great person. There are no words. It’s just so sad,” said Kirshenbaum.
“Her father always talked to me about her, he though she was a very special child. Because I’m a physician, he always spoke to me about her going to medical school. He wanted me to speak to her about what it is like to be a woman in medicine. He wanted to see her realize dreams,” she said.
Moffson will be buried at Riverside Cemetery in Saddle Brook, N.J.