UPDATE 12:15 EST:
Very upsetting.
Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, one of my writing clients, is part of the same Chabad community in Brooklyn, where Gavriel Holtzberg grew up.
He tells me today via email that they are “rocked” by the murder of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29 and his wife Rivkah, 28 in India:
His last known phone call was to the Israeli Consulate to report that gunmen were in his house. In the middle of the conversation, the line went dead.
The Holtzbergs joined the more than 125 people who were killed in the Wednesday night through Friday attacks, which saw dozens of suspected Islamic terrorists come ashore in Mumbai near the Gateway of India monument. The terrorists, carrying assault rifles and grenades, quickly fanned out to a central train station, the Chabad House and other tourist locations, including several popular hotels.
According to security services, the Chabad House was a pre-selected target.
Simcha tells me the Holtzberg’s son, Moshe, who survived the attacks, will turn 2 tomorrow. He was unharmed but covered in blood after being secreted out of the building.
They are asking for donations at Chabad.org and at ChabadIndia.org.
Donations are also invited to ZAKA (see below)
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An Israeli-based rescue service run by Orthodox Jews says staff members sent to Mumbai to help at the siege of the Chabad Lubavich Center are indicating the hostages inside are dead.
“Apparently the hostages did not remain alive,” the Zaka service said in a brief statement quoting its staff in Mumbai. It did identify the hostages nor say how many may have died. An Israeli rabbi and his wife had been believed to be held hostage.
PLUS: Canadian actor seriously injured in Oberoi hotel seige.
JihadWatch reports: Two of the terrorists were British Muslims, or “British born Pakistanis” in the tortured Alice in Wonderland syntax of the UK press.
They also say that two Turkish citizens at the Oberoi hotel were “released because they were Muslims”
Andrew Bostom: “The Legacy of Jihad in India”
You are invited to DONATE to Zaka to help them perform their unique task:
Meshi Zahav and a dedicated group of volunteers selflessly overcame the horror of terror attacks to recover human remains and ensure a proper Jewish burial. Chesed Shel Emet (true virtue) refers to the act of honouring the dead. In Judaism, this is considered the highest form of altruism, for the dead have no way of repaying the kindness.
ZAKA (the Hebrew acronym for Disaster Victim Identification) became an official volunteer organisation in 1995. ZAKA is the only organisation authorized by the Israel Police to handle the recovery and identification of body parts. The organisation has since developed the scope of its operations to include emergency response, search and rescue, accident prevention and assistance in international disasters.
Blogger Breath of the Beast writes:
The Mainstream Media are already in the process of demeaning and dehumanizing the Jewish victims of the Mumbai massacre.
They are routinely called “Ultra-Orthodox” and I have already read of them them being referred to as “missionaries”. Shabbat is approaching so I don’t have time to frame a complete response and as much as it is not my usual way to write in haste, I need to tell you, these are lies.
The mainstream media is ignorant (only some are intentionally so) but, in a way, you can’t blame them- because so many of our fellow American “Jews” foster the “Ultra” canard about these beautiful souls who in so many way epitomize what it means to be a not just a Jew, but a “fully human being”. May Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife, at least, be the beginning of an awakening.
Tell the world: “They were neither Missionaries nor ultra-Orthodox zealots they were, simple, devoted and loving people serving a very high purpose.”
They were murdered by zealots for purely political and bloody purposes. Here is a question for anyone who still denies that Caliphate Islamism is a problem: If they could do this to the Holtzbergs, if they could do this to all the other innocents people in Mumbai and Madrid and Beslan and New York and Jerusalem, how long will it be before they do it to you or someone you love? When will you stop trying to minimize and even excuse what they are doing by denigrating their victims?
