The legacy of Mumbai

THE Jewish community paused this week to acknowledge the first anniversary of a brutal terror attack on the Chabad House in Mumbai, India, that left the two-year-old son of Chabad emissaries Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg an orphan and took the lives of four guests: Rabbi Benzion Kruman, Rabbi Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, Yocheved Orpaz and Norma Shvarzblat-Rabinovich.

Even for a people who endured the Shoah less than a lifetime ago, and have become numbed by the horror of repeated terror attacks over recent years, Mumbai continues to strike an emotional chord.

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Moshe Holtzberg, orphaned by the Mumbai terrorists last year, is given his first haircut at Kfar Chabad, 20 kilometres east of Tel Aviv, on November 18. Photo: Isranet

DALIA SABLE, CHANTAL ABITBOL AND SYLVIA DEUTSCH

AUSTRALIAN students were among thousands worldwide who commemorated the first anniversary of the Mumbai terrorist attacks with a communal Shabbat dinner.

A global directive by Chabad on Campus in New York, “Bring a Friend Shabbat” aimed to be the largest campus-based Shabbat celebration and was held in memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, who were Chabad shluchim (emissaries).

The couple, together with four others, were murdered in Nariman House, the headquarters of Chabad in Mumbai, on November 26, 2008.

In all, more than 170 people were killed over three days of terrorism in the tourist districts of the city.

Moshe Holtzberg, the infant son of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, meanwhile, was spirited to safety by the Holtzbergs’ Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel.
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Naomi levin

AUSTRALIA’S Prime Minister has expressed his sympathy to the Jewish community in the wake of the Mumbai terrorist siege that left six Jewish people dead and a Jewish boy orphaned.
Speaking via video link at a Jewish memorial service in Sydney for the Mumbai victims, Kevin Rudd said the community mourns all the victims, including the two Australians killed and the “followers of the Jewish faith at Mumbai’s Chabad House who were murdered”.
He paid special tribute to Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holzberg, who ran the Chabad centre, and who lost their lives. Read the full story

Chantal Abitbol

JCS appeal chairman Stephen Green. Photo: AJN file

SYDNEY’S Jewish leaders are calling the terrorist attack on Mumbai’s Chabad House a “wake-up call” and are renewing calls for the community to donate to an ongoing security capital appeal aimed at upgrading the physical protection of Jewish communal sites.
Within days of the coordinated attacks late last month that left 172 people dead in the city -– including the couple who ran the Chabad centre, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg -– the Council for Jewish Community Security NSW (JCS), which launched the appeal in September, said it had seen a spike in donations, but the $20 million target was still a long way off.
“Fundraising could always be better. So far, the appeal is halfway towards its target,” JCS appeal chairman Stephen Green told The AJN.
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PETER KOHN

A MELBOURNE rabbi paid tribute to murdered Mumbai Chabad leader Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, as the Melbourne and Sydney Jewish communities began ramping up security after the terrorist attacks in India.
St Kilda Hebrew Congregation’s Rabbi Philip Heilbrunn met Rabbi Holtzberg in Mumbai when he led a tour of 14 Australian and overseas travellers to India two years ago.
Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah were found dead in Mumbai’s Chabad House, after it was attacked by terrorists during last week’s onslaught on the city. Read the full story

BENJAMIN HOLZMAN 

BENJAMIN HOLZMAN

AFTER hearing the terrible news that the six Israeli hostages were found dead inside the Chabad centre at Nariman house in Mumbai, I feel compelled to write something about these great people I knew. I lived in Mumbai for six months last year and would go to the Beit Chabad with friends for a Shabbat meal about every second week. 

Over the course of six months, we got to know Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg and his wife Rivki quite well. They were wonderful people — warm, inviting and engaging. Gabi would get visibly excited to have so many guests for Shabbat, you could tell it really made his week. Read the full story

BENJAMIN HOLZMAN 

BENJAMIN HOLZMAN

On Thursday morning I woke to the shocking news that terrorists had committed a series of coordinated attacks throughout Mumbai, India. Having lived in Mumbai for six months in 2007, this hit close to home. I immediately became engrossed in the developing news story, while simultaneously contacting friends still living in the beleaguered city. As details of the attacks and the multiple hostage crises unfolded, I became increasingly distraught as almost all the areas targeted were places I frequented on a near daily basis.

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