Ceremonies are being held around the world to mark ten years since the September 11 attacks.

Synagogues in Manhattan and further afield will be holding special services in memory of congregants who were among the almost 3,000 people who died in the World Trade Centre, the Pentagon and on the United 93 flight which crashed in Pennsylvania. Jewish representatives will also join interfaith memorial events.

Among the victims were Israelis and Jews from around the world, including Britain.

One of the victims was Leeds-born Howard Selwyn, who was on the 84th floor of the southern tower when the plane hit. The 47-year-old, who worked for Euro Brokers, was married with two sons.

James Selwyn, now 29 and with a nine-month-old daughter, told a New York news site that he was planning to take her to the site "soon" so she could see her grandpa's name.

On Friday, Wall Street marked the anniversary of the attack on the financial capital with a moment's silence before the markets opened. Today, the new tower on the site of the old ones – known as the Freedom Tower – will be opened to the families of those who were killed.

Speaking to the JC after the attacks, a businessman who worked near to the Twin Towers recalled a "big, black gaping hole, full of smoke.

"I knew right away that if it was a plane, it wasn't an accident," said Bill Siegel, whose office overlooked the buildings.

"Then I saw the second plane fly into the tower, and the fireball come up on the other side. It was a horrific sight. It was almost unbelievable. You could see it, but you couldn't hear it.

"After a while, all you saw was smoke and the buildings were gone."

In an editorial for that week's issue, the JC wrote: "As each new detail emerges of the terror attacks in New York and Washington, the magnitude of their evil becomes more terrible: the herding of passengers to the rear of the aircraft, the murder of some on board as others were directed to phone loved ones and say goodbye, then the final crash-not a "suicide" attack, but the deliberate slaughter of thousands of innocents."