BDE: Boston mourns two Jewish best friends who were killed in a car crash

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(Jewish Breaking News) A synagogue, a Jewish summer camp and the wider Boston community are mourning two teenage best friends who died over the weekend after being struck by a car.

Talia Newfield, 16, who is Jewish, and Adrienne Garrido, 17, were killed late Saturday afternoon while they were crossing a street about 20 miles southwest of Boston. Friends and family remembered the girls as energetic track athletes who were well liked by their wide circle of friends and peers.

Newfield died in a nearby hospital Saturday evening. Garrido’s death, at a Boston hospital, was announced Sunday evening. No arrests have been made and the case is under investigation, according to a Needham police lieutenant.

Two cars were involved in the accident but no further details have been released, pending the State Police and local district attorney’s investigation.

A funeral for Newfield, the youngest of four siblings, will be held Tuesday afternoon at Temple Aliyah in Needham, where Newfield’s family have been longtime, engaged members, according to friends of the family. A memorial observance will be held at a later date.

Talia Newfield

“This is the worst time of our lives,’’ Newfield’s father, Craig, told the Boston Globe. He made the remarks when he stopped by a makeshift memorial where friends placed bouquets of flowers at the intersection where the teens were hit.

“We want everybody to know that Talia and Adrienne were best of friends. They were unique, they were beautiful people, they were loved by everybody,” Craig Newfield said.

He and his wife, Lisa, are desperate to know the details of the fatal incident, according to the Boston Globe.

“We don’t understand how two beautiful young women can get taken from us in the space of about 20 feet on a clear evening on a flat, straight street in Needham. We just don’t understand,” Craig Newfield said.

In a letter to the school community shared Monday night on the school department’s Twitter account, the Newfield family thanked friends, family and their synagogue for their outpouring of support. They said Adrienne and Talia had “their lives and the world ahead of them.” The letter closed with the Hebrew words “yehi zichra baruch. May her memory be for a blessing,” traditional Jewish words of comfort.

Talia loved to laugh and could be goofy, according to her camp friend, Zoe Saldinger, who lives in Connecticut. In a phone conversation with JTA, Zoe recalled sharing a camel ride with Talia last summer on their camp trip to Israel.

“She was laughing the whole time,” joking that the camel behind them was going to bite them.

But she was a serious and dedicated artist as well.

In addition to her parents, Talia is survived by her siblings, Jake, Jessica and Michael. She is the granddaughter of Ethel and the late Kalman Newfield and the late Marvin and Cynthia Rosenkrantz.

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