Nariman House

The Nariman House (Hindi: नरीमन हाउस) (renamed as Chabad House (Hebrew: בית חב"ד Beit Chabad ), is a five-story landmark in the Colaba section of Mumbai, India. The building was home to a Chabad house, a Jewish outreach center run by Chabad-Lubavitch, and they have owned the building since around 2006. The center had an educational center, a synagogue, offered drug prevention services, and a hostel. The building was attacked and six of its occupants, including Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his five months pregnant wife Rivka were killed during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks but their two year old son Moshe survived the attack after being rescued by his Indian nanny Sandra Samuel.

Chabad House

The Chabad House, located at 5 Hormusji Street, is one of eight synagogues in Mumbai, and has been described as the epicentre of the Jewish community in the city.

This Chabad House is one of 4,000 such houses in 73 countries, typically run by husband-and-wife couples. In 2003, this Chabad House, the first one in Mumbai was opened by Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, newly married, and until the November 2008 Mumbai attacks was run by them. It catered to Israelis who are on their way to "party hotspots" such as Goa and Rajasthan, in addition to the city's local Jewish community and traveling Jewish businessmen. They also ran a synagogue and taught Torah classes, in addition to the Rabbi conducting weddings for local Jewish couples, it is the Chabad headquarters for Mumbai. The place was open to anyone who wanted a place to pray, eat kosher food or celebrate Jewish holidays. In a film in 2006, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg said that anyone who visited the center was welcome. It was not unusual for the Rabbi and his wife to have 30 people for dinner. Gavriel (born 1979, raised in Brooklyn, New York) and Rivka (born 1980 in Afula, Israel) Holtzberg came to Mumbai in 2003 after completing a mission in Thailand.

The three flights a week bring hundreds of them from Israel to Mumbai and in an interview Holtzberg said he understood the nature of the Israeli traveler's needs. The young rabbi, who was born in Israel but grew up in Brooklyn, said that they "need relief" from the army, from work, from real life. He said, "they come here to do everything the army didn’t allow them to do. Their shoes had to be polished and tied – here they wear sandals. They had to cut their hair – here they grow their hair long."

In addition, "Jews from all nationalities stopped there -- primarily Israelis, but also those from Singapore and other places. It was almost like a second home to them," said Elijah Jacob, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s country manager for India. "Our country director used to say it was like a second home to him because of all of the Jews there on Shabbat."

Gavriel also helped with some of the local synagogues. He helped them gather donations, do fund-raising for the synagogue T'feret Israel, in central Mumbai in Jacobs Circle, and helped build a mikvah there," Also, he was officially a shochet, making chickens available to the local Jewish community, making challah for the community, and the couple was "available for the community," there to answer halachic principles of the local community.

After the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, civic authorities declared the building no longer safe, with a senior police officer saying that "the building is in a bad shape and is in the danger of crumbling down. Riddled with bullet holes, broken window panes, massive holes in the ceiling of each floor, the 12 residents that the building housed had to be evacuated and relocated to the Colabawala House nearby. An executive engineer of the repair board said that the front-load bearing portion of the building was damaged from grenades hurled from the building on the Wednesday night. In addition, the building behind it, the Abdul Karanji building also bore damage from the grandes.

However, Chabad officals said they were certain the Mumbai house would reopen, and within hours of news of the Holtzbergs’ deaths, young Chabad couples from around the world, offered to move to Mumbai to continue their work. On December 2, Chabad officals annonced Rivka's parents, Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg, are going to take over running the Chabad House in the interm, until another emissary is chosen.

Services

These are the services this Chabad House offered.

Israeli center Kitchen koshering Brit milah Hospital visitation Prison visitation Prison chaplaincy Regular classes Marriage preperation Medical services Women's group Food package distribution Humanitarian aid Drug prevention	Shabbat hospitality Adult education Judaica shop Synagogue library After school programs Chevrah kadishah Bar/Bat Mitzvah instruction Mezuzah and Tefillin checking One-on-one study Kosher meal plan Jewish Learning Institute Mikveh Free internet café

Terrorist attack

Main article: November 2008 Mumbai attacks

The Chabad house was seized and attacked during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. At around 2145 hours (9:45 pm) local time on Wednesday, November 26, four terrorists took advantage of the fact that local security forces were operating in several locations throughout the city. Newscasters were calling it the "final assault", and the building is near the Leopold Cafe, another building attacked during the strike. Initially it was reported that six Israeli Jews were being held hostage. though that later jumped to eight, with a Chabad spokesman in Israel, Moni Ender, saying there were at least eight Israelis inside the house, including Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg The Rabbi's two-year-old son escaped earlier Thursday along with his nanny, Sandra Samuel, 44, who also worked as a cook for the centre for the last five years.

It was reported that gunmen fired indiscriminately towards the crowd. Initially, late Thursday evening, State officials in India confirmed to the Associated Press that eight hostages were released from the Chabad House. Later, the Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor disputed that, and said the eight people seen near Chabad House were not hostages, and that they were local Indians from a home in the same compound, and not Jewish hostages. Early Friday morning a large blast was heard at the centre, as fighting continued even though other sources were reporting that the building was under the control of the Indian security forces.

During the siege, a US Chabad official, Rabbi Levi Shemtov talked with one of the terrorists, calling on Holtzberg's cell phone. The FBI and other negotiation experts helped guide him through the process which included around five phone calls. Having to find an Urdu speaker to speak with him, they were unable to directly speak to any of the hostages, but Shemtov did say he heard the voice of one woman screaming in English, "please help immediately."

Shortly before dawn on Friday, Indian security forces began an attack on the Chabad House which was completed after sundown that evening. TV footage showed troops abseiling from a helicopter into the building, and soldiers on the ground closing in. Initially it was reported five hostages were killed at the Chabad House, then six on Friday, 8 by Saturday morning and the final number of 6 on Sunday, when two missing Israelis made contact with the Israeli Foriegn Ministry. When the raid ended at sundown, everyone inside the building was dead, including the Rabbi and his wife. At least one hostage (Rabbi Holtzberg ) might have been killed in the crossfire on Friday when the commandos moved in. The others were killed by the terrorists some on Wednesday, some on Thursday. Some of the victims had been bound, the Rabbi's wife and Orpaz had been killed many hours before., and several of the bodies were covered in tallit, including Rivka Holtzberg, leading witnesses to speculate that the rabbi managed to cover the bodies before he was killed.

During examination by doctors in Mumbai, it was discovered that most victims showed visible signs of torture.

Victims

List of murdered

Name	Age	Nationality
Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg	29	Brooklyn, Vereinigte Staaten (and dual Israeli citizenship)
Rebbetzin Rivka Holtzberg	28	Afula, Israel
Bentzion Kruman	26	Bat Yam, Israel (and dual US citizenship)
Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum	37	Brooklyn, Vereinigte Staaten
Yoheved Orpaz	62	Givatayim, Israel
Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich	50	Mexiko

Reactions

• File:770small.jpg Chabad-Lubavitch - Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch released a statement stating, "Gabi and Rivky Holtzberg made the ultimate sacrifice. As emissaries to Mumbai, Gabi and Rivky gave up the comforts of the West in order to spread Jewish pride in a corner of the world that was a frequent stop for throngs of Israeli tourists. Their Chabad House was popular among the local community, as well as with visiting business people. For five years, they ran a synagogue and Torah classes, and helped people dealing with drug addiction and poverty. Their selfless love will live on with all the people they touched. We will continue the work they started."
• Israel - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, "this terrible sight of Chabad House leaders wrapped in prayer shawls is shocking. These are pictures that bring us back to the moments in history which we had hoped would never return. It seems that hatred of Jews and Israelis provides motivation for such murderous acts....Last week was marked by among the most serious terrorist attacks India has ever known in Mumbai and which were the product of extremist Islam – brutal and unrestrained, which tries to sow death and destruction wherever it can. There is no doubt that these attacks were designed, inter alia, to intentionally harm Jewish institutions. The hatred of Jews, the state of Israel, and Jewish symbols is still a factor that spurs and encourages such murderous acts." Foreign Minister and Acting Prime Minister Tzipi Livni said: "The fact that the assault happened at a Chabad House symbolizes more than anything the fact that this assault targeted Jews, Israelis. Israel, India and the rest of the free world are positioned in the forefront of the battle against terrorism and extremists."
• Vereinigte Staaten - President-elect Barack Obama said, "Michelle and I want to express our profound sorrow and heartfelt condolences over the terrible tragedy that befell the Chabad Lubavitch community, and indeed the entire Jewish community, last week in Mumbai. We mourn the loss of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, and all their Chabad House guests, in these attacks. They were taken from us by terrorists with no regard for human life, and we must remain steadfast in support of efforts to bring the perpetrators of these attacks to justice you mourn and remember those we lost, you should know that so many Americans share your grief and pain. May their memories be a blessing."
• New York - Hillary Rodham Clinton, Junior Senator of New York and announced Secretary of State said, "My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and families touched by these acts of terror in Mumbai. We still do not know the full measure of this tragedy, which has taken the lives of Indian citizens, Americans, and others who had traveled to Mumbai from around the world. Two New Yorkers, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg of Brooklyn are among those who have died, leaving behind their young son. The young couple had traveled from Brooklyn to manage a small Chabad house, welcoming Jews from India and elsewhere to learn, pray, and serve the community. There could be no sharper a reminder, nor a more poignant call to action, than the brutal and heinous violence visited upon the Nariman House and the Holtzberg family, living and working in Mumbai on a mission of peace, scholarship, and spiritual guidance. As those responsible are brought to justice, as we aid and support the victims and their families, as we work to defeat radical extremism and the terror it spawns, let us find strength in knowing that in the face of those who seek to take lives, there are those who seek to give hope and comfort. In the face of those who wish only to destroy, there are individuals like Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg who travel great distances far from their homes to build a better world."
• New York City - Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York said, “Today we learned we have lost two New Yorkers: Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. This is a tragic loss for the Lubavitch community, and for our entire City. ...That their son survived is a miracle, and our entire City is grateful for his nanny’s heroic act. During a time of terrible sadness, her courage re-affirms our faith in the capacity of good to triumph over evil. ...Our hearts go out to the Lubavitch community, and to the many New Yorkers of all different religions and ethnicities who have been affected by the attacks. We will continue to pray for all of them, for all the people of Mumbai, for an immediate end to the violence, and for the release of all hostages.”
• File:Brooklyn flag.gif Brooklyn, New York - Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President, said, "We join the Brooklyn Lubavitch, Volove, and Satmar communities and all Brooklynites in expressing our outrage over the senseless and cruel murders of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife Rivka, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter Naomi of Virginia, and all of the innocents murdered and wounded in Mumbai. The monsters responsible for these attacks are attempting to undermine democracy in peace-loving nations everywhere, but this savagery only strengthens our resolve to eradicate terrorism and such atrocities against innocents of all faiths, wherever they exist. The Holtzbergs could have lived a simple and quiet life in Crown Heights, where Rabbi Holtzberg grew up, but their sense of religious duty took them to India to run Mumbai’s Chabad House, which, under their stewardship, became a comforting home away from home for thousands of Jews. HaMakom y’nachem eschem b’soch sh’ar aveilei Tzion v’Yerushalayim—May G-d comfort you among the rest of the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem."
• New York - David A. Paterson, Governor of New York said, "Michelle and I are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic deaths of those whose lives were lost in Mumbai, India due to senseless acts of terror. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of the victims’ families including those of Alan and Naomi Scherr from Virginia and native New Yorker Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, as well as the family of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka Holtzberg from Brooklyn, New York. The Holtzbergs moved from Crown Heights, Brooklyn to India in 2003 to lead the Nariman House, home to the Chabad Lubavitch community in Mumbai and to Jewish visitors from around the world. They and Rabbi Teitelbaum were deeply committed to providing the local Jewish community and Jewish tourists with a place to gather and learn and to provide them with spiritual guidance. Today, as every day, we stand in solidarity with those who preach democracy and peace."

See also

• Synagogues in India
• Knesset Eliyahoo

External links

• Chabad of India website
• Mumbai Chabad House
• Memorial site