Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were murdered in Colaba, a neighborhood of Mumbai, India. Their 2 year old son, Moshe and his nanny managed to escape. Holtzberg was 29 years old, his wife 28.
According to The New York Times and Chabad.org - “His last known phone call was to the Isreali Consulate to report that gunmen were in his house. In the middle of the conversation, the line went dead. His last words before being cut off were “Lov tov,” which translates to “not good” in Hebrew.
“The Holtzbergs arrived in Mumbai in 2003 to serve the small local Jewish community, visiting businesspeople and the throngs of tourists, many of them Israeli, who annually travel to the seaside city. 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."
What a terrible waste. Terrorists are nothing but cowards, plain and simple. I have added the Holtzberg’s to my heroes list. For more information please go to: http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/773691/jewish/Mumbai-Jewish-Family-Killed.htm and http://www.nytimes.com/
PS/Sadly, Alan Scherr, 58 and his 13 year old daughter were also murdered in Mumbai. They were there representing the Virginia mediation group - Synchronicity. Both were having dinner in the Oberoi Hotel when terrorists began firing.
As reported in The New York Times, President Bush in a written statement said: "Laura and I are deeply saddened that at least two Americans were killed and other injured in Wednesday's horrific attack in Mumbai. We also mourn the great loss of life suffered by so many people from several other countries and we have the wounded in our thoughts and prayers."
