March 15, 2013

(JTA) — A Jewish infant in New York survived an eight-story fall after his mother, Cynthia Wachenheim, strapped him to her body and apparently jumped to her death.

Wachenheim, who was 44, landed on her back on Wednesday in her Harlem neighborhood, allowing 10-month-old Keston to roll away virtually unscathed, according to media reports. She had been on on maternity leave from her work as a lawyer and left a 13-page suicide note for her husband, Hal Bacharach, 48. Wachenheim believed the boy had suffered brain damage in two falls and that she was to blame, The New York Times reported.

A graduate of Columbia University Law School, Wachenheim attended B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and volunteered with the American Jewish World Service. She also had worked in Pakistan advocating for women’s rights, according to reports.

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