On December 1 an Israeli Air Force jet left India for Israel Monday, carrying 2-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, orphaned son of Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, and Rivka, who were among the slain in the Mumbai Chabad House attack, along with his parents’ remains and the Indian woman who rescued him, Sandra Samuel.
Six civilians were killed in the center in the three-day terror siege that ended Saturday morning, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David said. In all, more than 170 died in attacks on 10 targets across the Indian city.
Among the Jewish victims were two other Israelis: Bentzion Kruman, an American-Israeli from Bat-Yam, Yocheved Orpaz of Givatayim. The fifth and sixth victims were Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a US citizen who lived in Jerusalem, and Norma Swartzblatt-Rabinovich, a Mexican Jewish woman who had planned to immigrate to Israel later this week.
The IAF jet left Mumbai on Monday, carrying Moshe, Samuel and the remains of his parents and the others killed at the Chabad House, the Foreign Ministry said.
Government officials planned a small ceremony upon the plane’s arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport late Monday, with funerals scheduled for Tuesday.
Moshe was accompanied on the trip to Israel by his maternal grandparents, Yehudit and Shimon Rosenberg, who were reunited with their grandson when they arrived in Mumbai on Friday.
The Foreign Ministry said the government would arrange official funeral send representatives to the ceremonies, as it does for victims of terror attacks at home.
Before the jet left for Israel, a memorial service for the Jewish victims was held in one of the largest synagogues in Mumbai on Monday morning. During the ceremony, Rivka Holtzberg’s father gave a tearful eulogy for his daughter and her husband, and praised Samuel for saving the boy’s life.
“With great resourcefulness Sandra saved the life of my grandson. Had she not [done this] he surely would have been murdered,” Shimon Rosenberg told more than a hundred family members and relatives of the victims, as well as members of the local Jewish community who attended the service.
The Israeli ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, also spoke during the event.
“The State of Israel will not sit quietly while Israelis and Jews are massacred just because they are Jews,” he said. “We will continue to work with India and with other countries in the world in order to prevent this kind of event from happening in the future.”
“This is a tragedy for India and a tragedy for Israel, but above all for the families,” Sofer continued, adding that this was not the time to weigh whether or not the international community is doing enough, but rather a time to think of the families.
“We, our Indian friends and the rest of the civilized world will continue to fight terrorism, until we win,” he said.
Also Monday, the Foreign Ministry announced that contact had been made with the last of the Israelis who were considered “missing” following the terror attacks in Mumbai, India which started last Wednesday and came to an end Saturday morning.
Six Jews have now been confirmed dead in the attacks which targeted, among other places, the Chabad House in the area, and which killed over 180 people.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman from the Interior Ministry told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that no formal request had been made as yet for Samuel to receive either permanent or temporary residency in the State of Israel.
However, she added that Interior Minister Meir Shitreet was willing to find a solution that would allow the woman, an Indian native, to stay here, at least for the short-term.
