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Rabbi said no to security, left it to G-d

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Mumbai: Israelis, in most parts of the world are known to take their personal security seriously due to the violence spawned by the decades old Arab-Israeli conflicts. But Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, the Mumbai representative of the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish movement — which believes that the world exists only through the intervention of God — was apparently not one among them.

In fact, so strong was the faith of Holtzberg, who ran the Chabad House centre in Mumbai and was killed by Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorists during the 26/11 Terror attacks, that he had refused to put in place any security systems in his building in Colaba. This, Israeli sources said, may have ended up making the Jewish centre a “soft target” for the attackers who also killed Holtzberg’s pregnant wife Rivka and four Israelis visiting them.

“We had told him to put a fence on his wall, get a door buzzer or a security camera as a precaution,” said one source. But Holtzberg had said he didn’t feel the need. “He said, ‘In God we trust, God will help us, God will protect us’,” the source said, but added that the mindset was in keeping with the Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy. “They were not missionaries or anything of that sort. They just believed in making the world a better place to live.”

Although not the first, nuggets of information that portray the couple in glowing terms continue to flow. The Colaba building was owned by the Brooklyn, New York-headquartered movement and was basically a Jewish inn which provided kosher meals and religious services to travelling Jews. “It was like a very modest hotel,” another Israeli source said. “But it was very welcoming and accepted everyone, whether they were diamond trading Jews from Brussels or backpackers from Israel.

In fact, Gavriel and Rivka are said to have been so generous that they would even deliver kosher meals to visiting Israelis lodged in police lock-ups or in jail for crimes they had committed. With the Chabad-Lubavitch movement being financially well-off, the centre did not charge visitors for the food or hospitality but donations were welcome.

This background of the Holtzbergs, and the fact that the Chabad House was hardly known to locals even in the immediate neighbourhood, has added to the mystery about how the Lashkar terrorists from Pakistan knew about them. Indian investigators are being helped by Israeli agencies in the probe and it is now believed that the area had been surveyed by the Lashkar or its local network well in advance.

One line being explored by the probe is if the Chabad movement had any history of animosity with Islamic groups. Sources said that Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last supreme leader of the Chabad movement who died in 1994, was known to be a hardliner over the Arab-Israeli conflict and opposed any territorial concessions to Palestinians. But they said this needed to be investigated and understood further before drawing any links.

For now, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement is reaffirming its faith in the divine and is also asking its followers, who have been shaken by the attack on the Holtzbergs, to do the same. The movement’s website has been flooded with metaphysical questions since the events of 26/11 with some followers saying they were confounded by the tragedy.

One anguished follower asks why God did not protect Gavriel and Rivka even though thousands of Jews were praying for them. In his reply, the online Rabbi cites the tortuous history of what was an underground movement in Communist Russia and says such ordeals were not new.

He then adds: “The main thing now is not to ask those questions. The main thing now is to help one another to be strong and rebuild. The orphan needs your help. The Jewish community of Mumbai needs your help. That’s where the money we collect will be going. Direct your outrage in a positive path.”

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I have reservations about the viewpoint of many journalists - Y P Rajesh is included. In other articles about the Chabad House, the Holzbergs are labelled "ultra- Orthodox" as if to depict these generous, good people as somehow "strange" "different" in a negative manner, or "weird" and that having a spiritual belief that "the world exists only through the intervention of God" is somehow unusual. At least the Holtzbergs saved life in the name of their God. Is this somehow strange or peculiar!! And what is a "soft target"? Who is Mr Rajesh thinking is the perpetrator and the victim in Mumbai? The reality is that it is irrelevant if they are atheists, Orthodox, or Conservative Jews. If they had security or not is also irrelevant. The world is dealing with the scourge of terrorism - let"s not turn this around as if terrorists need a reason to murder innocent people - they don"t. The fact is most likely that an Islamic terrorist googled Chabad, found the address and targeted the Holtzbergs because they were Jews. Why are articles turned around as if people "ask for it" (because of lack of security) for goodness sake. It"s the terrorists that should not be there! If we all adopt this mentality none of us will feel free to go out, travel, live, and do what we know is right. I say stand up to terrorism. Honour the Holtzbergs for being the polar opposite of evil. As in keeping with the Chabad-Lubavitch philosophy "the orphan needs your help" - give generously to ensure people in need do have safe, caring places of refuge like the Holtzbergs provided. The world needs people that provide human kindness.

Posted by Carol Ballarat on 2008-12-16 12:04:22 GMT

More context would have weakened the angle of the story. Would I be cynical by thinking that that"s why such context was omitted? What I am thinking about is the fact that the tiny Jewish minority in India has enjoyed good relations with the much larger Muslim and Hindu communities for centuries. In Mumbai, many of the Jewish communities main buildings (including synagogues) are in Muslim neighbourhoods. There has never been a problem. Hence, the whole Jewish community took the line that by keeping out of politics and maintaining a low profile the international scourge of antisemitic/anti-Israel/anti-Western Islamist terrorism would pass them by. They were, as we now know, wrong. We should not underestimate the lust Jihadists have for Jewish blood. It was this blood lust that inspired the terrorists to seek out a suitable Jewish target. The Chabad House was no "softer" than any other Jewish institution. So why choose it? I would suggest it was nothing more complicated than its proximity to the other targets chosen that sealed its fate. The writer"s suggestion that it had something to do with Chabad"s stance on the Israeli-Arab conflict is typical of journalists" general failure to identify the terrorists" antisemitic nature. Rather, they say there must be some rational political motivation - or even that the Chabad House was attacked by coincidence! No. Antisemitism is not so sophisticated. It is opportunistic, contradictory, adaptable and ultimately evil.

Posted by Stefan on 2008-12-16 10:46:50 GMT

I"m a firm believer in trusting in God AND keeping your powder dry. However, even locks etc may not have saved the Rabbi and his wife -- their murderers went out of their way to track down the Chabad centre -- just like Mohammad, whom they emulate. He also went out of his way to hunt out Jews to kill. When will the Western world wake up the evil of the Islamic doctrines?

Posted on 2008-12-16 07:29:13 GMT

I think labelling the Lubavitch movement by all writers as Ultra-orthodoc is incorrect. They are a Hassidic movement but unlike ultraorthodx branches of Judaisim they are much more liberal in their attidues.

Posted on 2008-12-16 04:55:29 GMT

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Rabbi said no to security, left it to G-d

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