A hundred odd mourners gathered at Kenneseth Eliyahu Synagogue, Kalaghoda, on Monday morning to pay homage to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife
Leaves for Israel on Monday evening with his grandparents on a special plane
A hundred odd mourners gathered at Kenneseth Eliyahu Synagogue, Kalaghoda, on Monday morning to pay homage to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, killed in the terrorist attack at Colaba’s Nariman House.
Moshe, the two-year-old son of the slain couple, was at the congregation, playing with a red plastic ball. Suddenly he cried out “Eema, eema” (Hebrew for mother), leaving the sombre gathering misty-eyed.
Dressed in a green T-shirt and blue shorts, the golden-haired Moshe made his last appearance in the city at the memorial service. He left for Israel on Monday evening with his maternal grandparents on a special military plane. Sandra Samuel, 44, his Indian nanny who rescued him from the terrorists, was given an Israeli visa, and followed Moshe in another flight.
As Mark Sofer, Israel’s ambassador to India, began addressing the congregation, Moshe cried out for his mother. “It was heart-breaking. Nobody could hold back their tears,” said Solomon Sopher, a prominent city Jew. “We read the Kadeeish (a prayer of mourning) in memory of all those who lost their lives in the attacks.”
The attack on the six-storey Nariman House, with the Jewish Chabad on its premises, left six Israeli hostages dead. Battered by several explosions during the two-day siege, the building is now tottering.
Rivka’s father, Shimon Rosenberg, told the gathering that the Chabad House would be rebuilt. “The house they (Rabbi and his wife) built here will live again. They were the mother and father of the Jewish community in Mumbai,” he said through tears.
The Holtzberg couple came to Mumbai from the US five years ago, and set up the Chabad House. The couple’s commitment to their religion and community won many hearts. “While the Rabbi was loved by all, Rivki (as she was fondly called) was the soul of the Chabad. She used to personally supervise the kosher kitchen,” said a local Jew, requesting anonymity.
Moshe is the couple’s third son. The eldest died after being diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic disorder. The second son is undergoing treatment for the same disease in an Israeli hospital.
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