images and video courtesy of the 9/11 memorial & museum

As a gesture of solidarity in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Israel, the Survivor Tree was lit in blue by the 9/11 Memorial & Museum on Tuesday.

The tree, which is near the south pool, was found in the rubble about a month after the 9/11 attacks. Extensively damaged with its roots and limbs snapped and its trunk blackened and burned, rescue workers pulled they Callery pear tree from the ruins and the tree was nursed back to health by the Parks Department. It was brought back to the plaza in 2010.

In 2013, in partnership with Bartlett Tree Experts and John Bowne High School in Flushing neighborhood of Queens, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum launched the Survivor Tree Seedling Program. Each year, the 9/11 Memorial gives seedlings from the Survivor Tree to three different communities that have endured tragedies including Parkland, Fla., where a gunman killed 17 people in February 2018; Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School; and Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria.