Emotional Baby Naming in Mumbai

By COLlive reporter

A bris milah ceremony took place on Sunday at the Nariman House, home to the reopened Chabad center in the Indian capital city of Mumbai.

The newborn’s parents are Rabbi Yisroel and Chaya Kozlovsky. They were joined by community members and family members who flew in for the occasion.

“Traveling to Mumbai was difficult for me,” commented Kozlovsky’s relative Rabbi Shimon Bergman, a Shliach in Russia. “The knowledge that you are walking around the building where Jews were murdered is a hard feeling.”

Kozlovsky’s predecessors, Rabbi Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg, were among the 6 Jews murdered in cold blood in the 2008 terror attack on their Chabad center.

“In the place where they planned to live and work to make a Kiddush Hashem, they also found their death al Kiddush Hashem,” Bergman said.

He said the words of the prophet Yechezkel that “Bedamayich chayi” (in or through your blood you shall live), was on the minds of participants. But then came a chilling moment.

The child’s grandfather Rabbi Meir Bergman of Jerusalem started reciting the blessings following the circumcision and then came the moment of naming the boy.

The father whispered and then the name was announced to all: Gavriel Noach, after Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg.

And the crowd’s reply was “Uomar lach bedamayich chayi,” – through your blood you shall live.

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