Today, 29 Cheshvan, marks the 10th anniversary of a series of coordinated terror attacks at 10 sites in Mumbai, India, in which 6 Jews were murdered, including Shluchim Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg HY”D.
One of the targets was the Chabad Center in Mumbai, led by Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg, who were taken hostage by the terrorists along with 4 others at the Chabad House.
After a standoff with special forces, it was discovered that the Shluchim were brutally murdered in cold blood, along with 4 other Jews.
Miraculously, the Holtzbergs’ two-year-old child, Moshe, was saved by his nanny, Sandra Samuel, who risked her life to remove Moshe from the Chabad House.
Gabi and Rivky, who had established the Chabad House in Mumbai in 2003, were renowned for their love and care for all those they encountered, and their dedication to spreading Judaism to Jews from near and far who visited at their Chabad Center.
Their apartment in Colaba, in the southern part Mumbai, quickly became a hub both for Jews traveling in India – many of them Israeli backpackers traveling in the country following their service in the IDF — and for those living in India.
Thousands attended the funeral for the Holtzberg couple, which took place in Kfar Chabad, Israel, and was attended by President Shimon Peres, government ministers, Knesset members, official Indian representatives and Chabad officials and Shluchim from around the world.
Hundreds gathered to watch a live broadcast of the funeral at Lubavitch Yeshiva in Crown Heights, while tens of thousands viewed the broadcast around the world.
Video: Live footage of the Funeral of Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg
Moishy Holtzberg, Rabbi Gabi and Rivky’s son, visits their gravesite today on the 10th anniversary of their murder.
Video (2008): Memories of Chabad Mumbai
A Lubavitch bochur who visited the Mumbai Chabad House this past year, filmed Rabbi Gabi Holtzberg in moments which accumulate to a moving memento clip obtained by COLlive. The now slain Shliach is seen talking to guests around a festive table and his surviving son Moishe’le is filmed running over to his nanny-his now savior. Edited by Shlomo Chaim Rivkin.
Holtzberg in Memento Shots from COLlive.com on Vimeo.
Video: Chabad Press Conference after Mumbai Terror Attack
Lubavitch Meets the Press from COLlive.com on Vimeo.
Video: Crown Heights residents interviewed after terror attack in Mumbai
Mumbai Aftermath: Officials and Lubavs Talk from COLlive.com on Vimeo.
Video: JEM Tribute to Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg Part 1
Video: JEM Tribute to Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg Part 2
Avraham Fried’s Tribute Song for Holtzbergs (December 2008)
Avraham Fried’s Song for Holtzberg from COLlive.com on Vimeo.
Singer Chaim Fogelman Tribute “Dear Shluchim” (January 2009)
May thier neshamos rest as they were the REBBES shluchim may we be zoche to be with Gabi And Rivka Holtzberg OBM
The same thing for my wife and i….
powerfully said that is the same thing that had happened to me
When I heard everyone around me saying and asking how is it that such can happen to the rebbes shluchim who had such mesiras nefesh, and gave away so much. I was a little girl. I didn’t know the answer. I still don’t know the answer. But thats when I promissed the rebbe that I will go on shlichus, no matter the cost or the place. And today I am on shlichus. In a third world comtrey. And even though I still don’t understand. And even though sometimes its hard and loanly, Im happy to be here. Im happy to… Read more »
Ad mosai!?
Watched it just to remember them but I must say it was torture.The pain we all feel is just devastating. And seeing Moishy as a baby was way too much.
Heartbreaking beyond comprehension
I will never forget that night. Rabbi Yosef and Yehudis Wolvovsky were generously hosting shluchim families from Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts for a Rosh Chodesh Kislev dinner and farbrengen. That spirit of achdus and “Chassidim ein mishpacha” will always be the lens through which I remember this tragedy. We cry together in the time of pain–let us dance together in the time of joy! Moshiach should come now, with the Holtzbergs at the head–ready to embrace their Moishale and dance with us to Yerushalaim.
we realy need moshiach now
Moshiach now can’t cry any more!!!
So much sorrow. Moshiach NOw!!
https://www.chabad.org/multimedia/media_cdo/aid/1043409/jewish/The-Mission-Statement.htm
wow Ad Mosai we want Moshaich now