The American-Israeli Hero At The Center Of 9/11’s First Fight

Before the towers fell and the world changed forever, the horror of September 11 began near seat 9B of American Airlines Flight 11.

Danny Lewin, a 31-year-old American-Israeli mathematician, tech tycoon, and former officer in Israel’s most elite military unit, is widely believed to have been the very first person killed in the terrorist attacks.

Lewin was seated in business class one row behind hijacking ringleader Mohamed Atta and hijacker Abdulaziz al-Omari. Satam al-Suqami, another member of the five-man terrorist team, was seated directly behind Lewin in seat 10B.

The 9/11 Commission determined that Lewin was stabbed during the takeover, probably by al-Suqami. Fluent in Arabic and hardened by years of counterterrorism training, Lewin didn’t wait to see how the hijacking would play out. He rose from his seat and moved to confront Atta and al-Omari as they pushed toward the cockpit. He never saw the threat behind him: the commission concluded he had no idea al-Suqami, seated one row back, was about to strike. According to the 9/11 Commission, flight attendant Amy Sweeney “reported on her line that the plane had been hijacked; a man in first class had his throat slashed.” She and flight attendant Betty Ong contacted American Airlines from the air with the grim news that a passenger in seat 9B had been slashed and was dead.

Twenty-five minutes later, Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

Shahar Azran/Getty Images

Born in Denver in 1970 and spending his teenage years in Jerusalem, Lewin was never just like everyone else. As a teenager in Israel, he skipped class to hit the gym and eventually won the title of Mr. Teenage Israel in a bodybuilding competition. When it came time for military service, he pushed his way into Sayeret Matkal, the ultra-secretive special forces unit whose ranks also included Yoni Netanyahu, who later commanded it, and his younger brother, future prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Foreign-born recruits were almost unheard of in the unit, but Lewin defied the odds. He survived two years of brutal selection, rose to captain, and led dangerous covert missions.

When he hung up his uniform, he traded guns for algorithms. Lewin studied at Israel’s elite Technion before heading to MIT, where he teamed up with applied math professor Tom Leighton. Together, they founded Akamai Technologies, inventing algorithms that eliminated web congestion and practically built the modern fast internet.

“He was an incredible titan,” Leighton remembered. “Danny loved really hard challenges, loved to solve problems people thought were impossible.”

By his late twenties, Lewin was a dot-com billionaire with a wife, Anne, and two young sons. He was known for his relentless drive, once famously walking into workrooms to bark at engineers: “You’re behind!”

On the night of September 10, 2001, Lewin stayed up agonizing over company layoffs brought on by the dot-com crash. He got just one hour of sleep before boarding Flight 11 in Boston for a business trip to Los Angeles.

He never made it. But even in his final moments, the warrior inside the mathematician refused to back down.

“I’m sure at some point it became clear to him what was going on,” said early Akamai investor Todd Dagres. “And I’m sure he acted. … But he couldn’t get them all.”

Today, Lewin is buried in Sharon, Massachusetts. In Israel, his name is etched into a 9/11 memorial made of Ground Zero steel, the only memorial outside the U.S. listing every single victim.

Danny Lewin was a titan in life, and in his final seconds, a true American and Israeli hero.

The first victim of 9/11 was Danny Lewin. Born in Denver, raised in Jerusalem. Captain in Sayeret Matkal. Mathematician. Co-founder of Akamai – the company that still carries a huge share of the internet.

On the morning of September 11, 2001 he boarded American Airlines Flight… pic.twitter.com/e4Eawv9IcT

— Michael Dickson (@michaeldickson) September 10, 2026