Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Chabad Center in Mumbai on Thursday and unveiled a memorial to the 166 people killed by terrorists who rampaged through the Indian city over three days in 2008.
Netanyahu arrived along with 11-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were among the six people killed at the Chabad Center during the attack. During his 2017 visit to Israel, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Moshe to visit.
It is the first time Moshe has returned to India since the attack. He was just two years old when terrorists attacked the Chabad Center and was rescued by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, who found him by his parents' bodies and fled with him while the gunmen were still inside the building. Samuel accompanied him to Israel after the attack, and was granted Israeli citizenship. She accompanied Moshe and his grandparents on the current trip back to Mumbai.
The Chabad Trust of India is converting parts of the building into a memorial for the victims of the attack, which also targeted a main railroad station, posh hotels and a cafe.
India has accused a Pakistan-based militant group of perpetrating the attack.
Netanyahu toured the Chabad Center with Moshe and his family, and visited Moshe's old room, on the floor where the murders occurred. A designated psychologist accompanied Moshe on his trip due to concerns that entering the Chabad house would overwhelm him. The psychological support was coordinated with the professional team that has treated him since he lost his parents.
Moshe's grandfather, Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, presented Netanyahu with tefillin and a prayer during the tour of the center. Netanyahu recited the Shema Israel prayer with emotion. Rosenberg said there are currently 17 active Chabad Houses in India, and Netanyahu praised the work of Chabad as "bringing hearts closer together."
"I am very moved to be here with you, with you, Moshe," Netanyahu said during the ceremony.
"I see that you are growing up nicely. You are 11 years old, almost bar mitzvah age. In the future, when you have your own family, please invite me then too.
"The people of Israel have been with you throughout and there is a good reason for this. What happened here expressed many things. It expressed hatred of Israel and love of Israel. Your dear parents' love of Israel, that of the Chabad emissaries here and around the world, which embraces every Jew and has a home for every Jew everywhere including here in the heart of Mumbai.
"Love of Israel and hatred of Israel – the reprehensible murderers who, we regret, claimed their victims, did not claim this boy because of the love for Israel of a splendid woman, Sandra [Samuel].
"We know that with the force of life and our love of life, we have overcome all obstacles and the Jewish people live. The Jewish people will continue to prosper thanks to the strength of their faith, their love and their actions," Netanyahu said.
Speaking after Netanyahu, Moshe said, "My heart beats. My heart is moved, to return to my parents' home, the Chabad House that has been rebuilt and refurbished. Here I was born, and here I spent two years. I have absorbed my beloved parents' sense of duty. To leave the Promised Land on behalf of the rebbe [the Lubavitcher rebbe who headed the Chabad movement, the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson].
"From the lowest of places, the house that is open to everyone, to Jews from around the world, who sought a warm corner, my beloved parents did what they did here for the Land of Israel.
"I am returning home, I am returning to my room after a nine-year separation. On this festive occasion, I would like to thank God. Praised are you, the Lord our God, who performed a miracle for me in this place.
"Today I live with my grandparents in Afula and go to a Chabad school in Migdal Haemek [in northern Israel]. I thank you for everything. I bless my grandparents and thank Sandra who saved me, praise God.
"In another two years, if God wills it, I will celebrate my bar mitzvah. Dear Prime Minister, I invite you to join me on my next visit here on the occasion of my bar mitzvah. With God's help, I will continue my parents' mission here.
"I thank the Chabad people and the prime minister's staff for taking all this trouble for the successful event of laying the cornerstone for a museum in memory of my dear parents. Dear Benjamin and Sara [Netanyahu], I present you with a modest gift: a photo of a Torah scroll that was struck by the terrorists' bullets. A bullet left a hole in the shape of a Star of David exactly over the words 'After the death of Aaron's two sons, when they drew near before the Lord and died' [Leviticus 16:1]. I pray to God that very soon we will see my mother and father with the Messiah."
