26/11 ravaged Mumbai Jewish centre to be revived
June 17th, 2010 - 10:51 pm ICT by IANSMumbai, June 17 (IANS) Nearly 19 months after Chabad House, the Jewish community centre in south Mumbai, was targeted by Pakistani terrorists in the 26/11 terror attack, two new religious officials will soon come here to revive the centre.
Rabbi Chanoch and Leiky Gechtman, an Israeli couple with connections to Mumbai’s Jewish community, have been appointed as the first permanent Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries since the terror attack of Nov 26-29, 2008, according to a statement on www.chabad.org
The announcement was made in Washington Wednesday night at a function attended by ambassadors of more than 40 countries, including India’s Meera Shankar.
During the terror attack, the Mumbai Chabad House director Rabbi Gavriel and his wife Rivky Holtzberg, besides four Jewish guests, were brutally killed by the attackers.
Their two-year old son, baby Moshe, and his nanny Sandra Solomon miraculously survived the massacre in Chabad House and are now safe in Israel.
“Now, there’s a rabbi who has got his visa for India and would soon go there to revive the Mumbai Chabad House,” Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch told the gathering.
Gechtman, 25, had first come to Mumbai in 2006 to assist the Holtzbergs with the birth of their son Moshe, and studied rabbinical law under Holtzberg.
He lived in Mumbai for five months and spent most of his time teaching the Torah to Israeli backpackers who visited the centre regularly.
After the 26/11 attack, the Gechtmans have visited Mumbai several times and interacted with the tiny Jewish community here in preparation for their new mission.
Leiky Gechtman, 23, grew up in Israeli city of Gedera and is the eldest daughter of Chab-Lubavitch emissaries Rabbi Binyomin and Chana Karniel.
Their names were suggested for the Mumbai posting by Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, father of the late Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg,
Gechtman, who enjoyed a close relationship with the late rabbi, said that he has yet to come to terms with the fact that the Holtzbergs are no more.
“It seems like they are people who live forever, that something like this cannot happen to them,” he commented during the appointment ceremony.
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- Jews around the world mark 26/11, with resolve 'to do good' - Nov 26, 2009
- Nariman House reopens on 26/11 first anniversary - Nov 26, 2009
- Mumbai remembers 26/11: host of events planned a year on - Nov 25, 2009
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- Some bodies in Mumbai Jewish centre still unidentified - Nov 30, 2008
- Jews pray for peace for Mumbai terror attack victims at Gateway of India - Dec 26, 2008
- Hafiz Saeed seeks Pakistan government aid in Mumbai case - Jan 13, 2011
- Kin of New York victims file Mumbai terror attack civil suit against ISI, Laskar-e-Toiba - Nov 23, 2010
- India may implead in US court to establish ISI's terror link - May 29, 2011
- Chabad House: still pocked with bullet marks, still remembering its rabbi (One year after 26/11) - Nov 16, 2009
- Mumbai remembers, prays for 26/11 victims - Nov 26, 2010
- Rabbi Gavriel's parents want to rebuild Chabad House - Feb 14, 2009
- Obama praises Taj manager Kang, Moshe's nanny - Nov 06, 2010
Tags: chabad house, chabad lubavitch, chanoch, educational arm, eldest daughter, emissaries, gavriel, gedera, holtzberg, israeli city, jewish centre, jewish community centre, jewish guests, meera shankar, pakistani terrorists, rabbi moshe, rabbi nachman, religious officials, south mumbai, terror attack