Ben and Shelly Kerstein and a relative were walking on the sidewalks of Bensonhurst, a Brooklyn neighborhood with a large Orthodox Jewish community, on their way to a family gathering that afternoon.
“The first reaction was shock, and the second—I realized it was from God, and He saved us,” Ben Kerstein said emotionally.
Dramatic security camera footage from the street shows the three walking casually when, suddenly, the tree collapses with tremendous force.
“We ran, and everything just crumbled into dust because the tree was so old,” Shelly recounted. She added that just seconds earlier, she and her husband had noticed the massive tree and even commented on its condition.
“I said, ‘Wow, look at that tree—it looks a thousand years old,’ and then we just kept walking. It happened right after that.”
The three turned back in complete shock, staring at the trunk that had just smashed onto the sidewalk where they had stood moments earlier.
“This was undoubtedly God,” Shelly emphasized. “There’s no question—He put us there for a reason, to witness this and also to save us.”
The couple said they couldn’t stop thinking about what might have happened if their children had been with them.
“I just can’t imagine what would have happened if our kids had been walking just a few steps behind us,” Ben said.
Overcome with emotion, he reacted instinctively—by dancing. Security footage captured him celebrating just moments after the tree fell.
“There was no other way—God saved us. We had to celebrate. That was just my instinct.”
“I don’t know what the statistics on miracles are, but I know for sure that’s what happened here,” Ben Kerstein said.
He added that the realization of how close they had come to tragedy continues to shake them. “People believe in statistics, but we saw with our own eyes the hand of God watching over us.”
The tree had been standing on private property, and the property owner declined to respond to media inquiries regarding its condition before the collapse.
