Plane Crash Kills Local Jewish Father and Daughter

In his eulogy for Jonathan Rosen, 47, and Allison Rosen, his 14-year-old daughter, Temple Sinai Rabbi Brad Levenberg compared their premature deaths to Franz Schubert’s “Unfinished Symphony.” “An unfinished life is, in many ways, like an unfinished symphony,” Levenberg said, standing next to the side-by-side graves for the pair, who were killed in the Oct. 8 crash at Peachtree-DeKalb Airport.

Rosen, a financial services executive, his daughter and two other victims — his assistant, Lauren Harrington, 42, and Allison’s friend, Julia Smith, 13 — had been headed to Houston aboard a 1978 Cessna piloted by Rosen. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Daniel Boggs told reporters that the plane was full of fuel, “which is where most of the damage and fire came from.” Boggs said the plane was about 75 feet in the air when it nosed over.

The wreckage of a small aircraft smolders at DeKalb Peachtree Airport, Georgia (WSB-TV)

The Rosens leave behind wife and mother, Jill, and daughter Gabby.

Opening the service at Arlington Cemetery, Levenberg noted, “Though there is every other place we would prefer to be, this is the place where we know we need to be. We need to be here, either in person or virtually, for Jill and Gabby.” Nearly 300 people viewed the funeral virtually, in addition to the scores who attended the Wednesday morning funeral.

An avid fisherman, Rosen was also an entrepreneur from an early age. He founded Entaire Global Companies, a financial services firm specializing in leveraged strategies for retirement planning and wealth creation, and subsequently sold it to Synovus Financial Corp. His obituary said he also established the Jonathan D. Rosen Family Foundation, which provides financial literacy classes to teenagers, mentoring many young adults entering the business world.

His daughter, Allie, who had just celebrated her 14th birthday two days before the crash, was an eighth-grade student at Peachtree Middle School. She was a rock climber and champion weightlifter.

Both father and daughter collected friends throughout the years, according to Levenberg’s eulogy. “He adopted people, some of whom are here today, all of whom feel his absence today.” However, “the best of himself, he saved for Jill, for Allie and for Gabby.”

One of “Allie’s great loves was to make people smile,” said Levenberg. The teenager had “one of those laughs that invited others to smile and laugh.” She was also a good storyteller and wanted to become a pilot, the rabbi related, painting a picture of a young girl full of hope and life.

A statement issued by the Jonathan D. Rosen Family Foundation said: “We are so extremely sad to share that Jonathan was taken from this world too soon … together with his daughter, Allie. They both made the world a better place and will be missed by many. We hope that you will help us carry on his legacy.”

It was requested that contributions be made to the Jonathan David Rosen Family Foundation Wealthy Habits. According to its tax filing for the year ending in October 2019, the foundation had assets of $2.15 million and 90 percent of its expenses were for charitable disbursements.

A preliminary report on the cause of the plane crash is expected within a couple of weeks, NTSB investigator Boggs told reporters. Complete investigations of accidents with fatalities typically take one to two years.

Dave Schechter contributed to this story.