Moshe’s Nanny Speaks Out

By Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz

Chabad members are keeping Indian caretaker Sandra Samuel in an undisclosed apartment in the north of Israel, where she is staying with Moshe Holtzberg, the 2-year-old son of Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, Chabad emissaries murdered in last week’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Samuel, who spirited the child away from the city’s Chabad House 12 hours after terrorists had taken it over, was granted special permission to enter Israel. It remains unclear how long she will be allowed to stay, but a family member said yesterday, “if necessary, we will keep her here for another few months.”

Yehuda Donin, a relative of the Holtzbergs, said Samuel and Moshe are staying in a separate apartment, away from family members sitting shiva, the traditional seven-day mourning period, at Rivkah’s parents’ home in Afula. “The whole world wants to interview [Samuel], and it’s important to let her rest,” he said.

Meanwhile, the family has decided that “it is important that the people of Israel know what happened there,” and have therefore decided to grant interviews to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, Channel 2 and CNN, which will be aired at the end of this week.

Sources at the Chabad movement in Israel, which until now has accompanied the family and organized last week’s public funeral for the couple, expressed discomfort at family members’ behavior. They said it was Rabbi David Grossman of Migdal Ha’emek, the brother-in-law of Rivkah Holtzberg’s father, who sponsored Samuel’s arrival in Israel, and who should determine which news outlets are given interviews.

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