Moishy Holtzberg Turns Five

India Today

Three years ago, Baby Moshe, the unforgettable face of Mumbai attacks, escaped the carnage clinging to his nanny not knowing that his parents were killed, but now a four-year-old he knows they have fallen victims to terrorists.

Orphaned by the terrorists who struck Mumbai, Moshe is now a happy and carefree child, though he remembers his parents whenever he sees their photographs, saying good morning or good night to ‘eema’ (mother) and ‘abba’ (father) each day.

Running around or resorting to childish mischief like any five-year-old, he often gives a tough time to his maternal grandparents Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg with whom he is living presently in Afula along with nanny Sandra Samuel.

Moshe lost his parents – Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his five-month pregnant wife Rivka – along with four others on November 26, 2008 at the Chabad House.

Sandra, along with cook Qazi Zakir Hussain, saved the toddler from the jaws of death while his parents were in the clutches of terrorists.

“He is very clever, very happy. He goes to the school and comes to this place everyday. He knows his mother and father are somewhere in the sky. Moshe knows this. He says his parents are dead because terrorists killed them.

“Every day Moshe wishes his parents before sleeping.

Every night he kisses the picture and says goodnight,” Shimon says.

Have you forgiven the terrorists? “No no, of course not,” replies Moshe’s grandmother Yudith. “We cannot forgive the men who killed my child, can I forgive them? No.”

His nanny says, “it makes me very very sad and angry because at that moment they could have escaped but they did not do it and I could have done something, which in my cowardness I did not do.”