The entire Jewish world and its friends amongst the nations stood together in shock over the horrific massacre of six Jews in the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai, India. In addition to Rabbi Gavriel and Rebetzin Rivka, four other Jews who were at the Chabad House when it was attacked also gave up their lives to the terrorists' brutality: Rabbi Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, Rabbi Ben Tzion Kruman, Yocheved Orpaz and Norma Shvartzblat Rabinovch, all of blessed memory. This page is a tribute to them and to the slain couple that founded and directed the Mumbai Chabad House, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, of blessed memory.
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The 'Disco Rabbi' Composes A Song Thanking G-d for Saving Little Moshe -- The rabbi sings a catchy tune giving thanks to G-d for sparing Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg's son Moishe as well as others who were present.
From Rabbi Gavriel's direct superior, worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky:
"He was the finest and nicest gentleman that you can imagine. Never saw him without a smile. In the most trying of times, he was always cheerful. He greeted everyone pleasantly, and the reports that we always heard from around the world were of him being a real mentch [a warm individual of sterling character]. He was a very very special person, him and his wife."
Pictures
Rivka and Gavriel Holtzberg, of blessed memory
photo: Chabad.org
Photo: Chabad.org
Photo: Chabad.org
(courtesy Doron ben Avraham)
(courtesy Doron ben Avraham)
- More photos of Mumbai Chabad activities and related
- Photos from inside the Mumbai Chabad House after the massacre
- Photo Essay: Funerals of the Martyrs of the Mumbai Massacre
Messages of Support to the Families of the Victims
Messages of love and support, outrage and grief, faith and compassion for the families of the Jewish victims of the Mumbai Chabad House massacre came pouring in to the Israel National News website. Herewith a sampling...
Recent News Stories
- A Light Unto the World: Chanukah Honors Chabad House - The Chabad-Lubavitch movement is promoting a "Unite the Light" program that encourages Jews to light candles on the Festival of Lights in honor of the Chabad House victims in Mumbai.
- India Was Silent to Mumbai Terrorists' Offer to Save Holtzbergs - An interpreter who helped a Chabad rabbi converse with a terrorist in the Chabad House in Mumbai said demands were relayed to India, but no one helped while the Holtzbergs still were alive.
- Israeli Post-Trauma Experts in Mumbai - A team of Israeli post-trauma experts has flown to Mumbai to train their counterparts on how to help victims of the recent terrorist massacre.
- India's Jews: Time to Rebuild - The Jewish community of Mumbai announced Monday that it would rebuild the city's Chabad House after its destruction in a terrorist attack.
- A Unique Holtzberg Memorial - To honor the lives of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, murdered in Mumbai, an Israeli artist is creating a global collaborative art exhibit.
- In Memory of Gavriel and Rivky - "I feel compelled to write because I want the world to know who Rivky and Gabi Holtzberg were in Life," writes a visitor to their Chabad House.
- Torah Answers Mumbai Bullets - The verse in the Torah that was pierced by terrorist bullets in the Mumbai massacre speaks of the death of the high priest Aaron's two sons
- Ceremony Held for India Terror Victims - A ceremony took place Monday in the Knesset Eliyahu Synagogue in Mumbai for the Jewish victims of the Mumbai terror attack
- Chabad House Victim Was Slated to Make Aliyah Tuesday - The Mexican citizen killed in the Chabad House massacre had planned to immigrate to Israel on Tuesday. Her grieving son learns in Bnei Brak.
- Holtzberg Family, Victims' Bodies En Route to Israel - Rivka Holtzberg's parents boarded a plane Monday with the bodies of the six victims of the Mumbai massacre, including their daughter.
- Doctors: Terrorist Torture of Jewish Victims 'Beyond Words' - Doctors said that Muslim terrorists tortured Jewish victims before killing them. A picture of the revered Chabad movement's Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson was unharmed.
- Photos of Mumbai Chabad House Massacre -Warning: Graphic Content - Images inside the Mumbai Chabad House after the Nov. 26 massacre. Warning: Some of the photos contained on this page are explicit and graphic.
Videos
In the video below, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, of blessed memory, talks about the history of the Mumbai Chabad House which he founded 5 years ago.
The Chabad movement offers a response to the horrific massacre in the video below. Translating fury into action (Courtesy of FridayLight.org )
In the clip below, IsraelNN speaks with Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Lior Chayat as he boards the plane in Mumbai to return to Israel with the bodies of the slain martyrs.
More videos and radio programs...
Audio
Yishai Fleisher interviews Dr. Baruch Sterman, businessman who travels to India regularly, about his experiences in the Mumbai Chabad House with the Holtzbergs.
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Two more rabbis, and two Jewish woman were murdered in the Chabad House of Mumbai, leaving some thirteen orphans, of which the oldest is thirteen and the youngest a baby of only two months.
Our hearts go out to the hundreds of families who lost loved ones in that brutal, heartless and cowardly attack in Mumbai, in which over two hundred people lost their lives.
I know Rabbi Holtzberg's father personally. It is difficult for me to find the proper words to express my heartfelt feelings and sorrow for this terrible tragedy. How can one find the proper expression of condolence for the horrific personal tragedy of the Holtzberg and Rosenberg families?
Rabbi Gavriel and his wife, Rivkah, were two wonderful young people, who decided to give up the comfort of living in Brooklyn, or in Israel close to their families and their Jewish community and settle in far away Mumbai, India.
Why, you ask? Simple (I mean... to them it was simple). They had a higher goal in life than the average young couple. They were committed to fulfill a holy mission in life. While other young couple's first concern is how to make life better for themselves, the Holtzbergs asked, "How can we make life better for others?"
They were two of more than four thousands emissaries (Shluchim) of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of blessed memory, who will place another person's needs before their own.
Gabi and Rivkah Holtzberg's love for a fellow Jew went beyond the Talmudic prescription of, "Don't do unto others what you don't want done unto yourself..." Their motto was, "Do unto others what you want for yourself... and more!" And they did and did. As a ritual Shochet, the rabbi would prepare a hundred chickens every week, while his wife would bake bread and Challot and prepare delicious gourmet meals for their many guests.
They were in Mumbai not as other westerners, traveling there for work, business or pleasure. They were in there only to help other Jews who were there for whatever reason and needed a home away from home. They moved to Mumbai to provide a synagogue, a home, kosher meals, to whom we would call strangers, but to Rivkah and Gabi no Jew was a stranger. They considered everyone who came through their Chabad House as family.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe taught us time and again to stand strong during moments of adversity. While our hearts are broken with the news of the loss of these two wonderful people, we have to continue their work in our own way. If we can ask Rabbi and Rebbetzin Holtzberg today, "What can we do for you?" They would answer, "Do a Mitzvah!"
So let's do a daily mitzvah in their honor and memory and pray that G-d watch and protect their son, Moshe, who was miraculously saved by his nanny. May G-d bless her for her heroic act of saving the little boy. May G-d bless His people, wherever they are, with true peace. Amen.
RABBI ZALMEN MAROZOV
Director, Torah Fax
Montreal, Canada
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Please send your story and/or pics of a personal encounter with Rabbi Gavriel
and Rivka Holtzberg to: chabad-tribute@IsraelNationalNews.com. We will publish your full name and place of residence [not email] unless otherwise noted.