WASHINGTON, DC [AP] — An American rabbi said Sunday that he heard a woman’s desperate cry for help as he spoke to one of the assailants at the Mumbai Jewish center before everyone inside the building was killed.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov said he made contact with the gunman when he called the cellphone of Gavriel Holtzberg, one of the hostages at the Chabad House, after the attack began on Wednesday.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov Spoke to Terrorist
WASHINGTON, DC [AP] — An American rabbi said Sunday that he heard a woman’s desperate cry for help as he spoke to one of the assailants at the Mumbai Jewish center before everyone inside the building was killed.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov said he made contact with the gunman when he called the cellphone of Gavriel Holtzberg, one of the hostages at the Chabad House, after the attack began on Wednesday.
Shemtov, of Washington, D.C., is a member of Chabad-Lubavitch, the same Hasidic sect that sent Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, as envoys to work with Jewish residents and travelers in Mumbai.
“I tried and tried and tried, and in the end someone answered and said ’hello,’” Shemtov told Israel’s Army Radio. Someone answered and said he was an Urdu speaker, so Shem-Tov found an Urdu speaker and dialed again. The man who answered “sounded very calm” and said his name was “Imran.”
“He didn’t want to tell me what he wanted. He said the rabbi was OK, everyone was OK, that if they did what he wanted he would free them.” Shemtov asked the man not to hurt the hostages and promised to help him get in touch with the Indian government.
“I asked if we could hear the voice of the rabbi, or someone who was alive there, and we only heard the voice of one woman screaming in English, ’please help immediately,’” he said.
“I asked him to pass the phone to the rabbi. He said, ’You’ve already asked for too much.’”
Shemtov called repeatedly, estimating he spoke to the man around five times. Eventually the assailant said the battery was dying and hung up.
Indian commandos raided the building before dawn Friday. When the raid ended at sundown, everyone inside the building was dead. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said nine hostages, including the Holtzbergs, had been killed.
ch
How the heck were they able to get a picture of the b******* and not shoot him between the eyes????
JJ
to CH-
I think this photo is from a closed circuit security camera.
out of towner
thats a different terrorist – this is the one they captured alive.
excher
god bless you rabbi, how do you sleep at night?
CH Cynic
I wonder what he expected to gain from speaking to the terrorist except for a soundbite… Is he a trained negotiator well versed in Hindu/Muslim politics? Maybe he is more connected to the Indian Government than the Indian Government themselves, so that when they say they arent going to negotiate with the terrorists they hadnt actually consulted with Levi Shemtov….
Mark Goldberg
Personally, after hearing the women scream, I wouldn’t be able to sleep for days and maybe weeks. How about you Rabbi, are you able to sleep? Why didn’t he ask for the women to be freed?
RS
I feel so bad! Oy oy oy!
curious
was he directed by the fbi or was he doing this on his own. from the story it sounds like they came in after the fact?
another cynic
Levi this is not about you. Leave this to the professionals which you are certainly not. Maybe you can head “mujahedeen friends of chabad”
mike
Why did Levi Shemtov have to mix in?
Bella
CH Cynic…I think the Rabbi was calling as a concerned friend and colleague of Rabbi Holtzberg. Put yourself in his shoes…would you not do the same (call repeatedly) if your friend went missing in a terror situation?
m .h.
Levi did the right thing, Levi was up for 3 days, doing everything he could, and deserves Hakoras Hatov. Levi is a great mentch, man ytried calling Gabby’s cell phone and no success. When levi called and his area code of washington 202 was what got the terrorists to answer the phone.
insider
there were a number of people on that conference call in which the terrorist was on and the urdu speaker was brought in to 770 by others for the perpose of speaking to the police and others there.
please be sensitive to this hearing the voice of the terrorist and a female hostage will haunt people that heard it for along time.
A disgusted reader
you should be ashamed of yourselves. Not three days after the tragedy and you can’t help yourselves from speaking lashan Hora and making degrading comments. Do you know all the facts? You should be lauding the shluchim at this point, not knocking one of them, especially one who is known for spending a great deal of his Shlichus helping other Shluchim and who obviously went into this matzav with the hope of helping a fellow Shliach. If you don’t have a positive post then please don’t post at all.
Menachem
As much as this need not really be said, Levi was trying to show he had some power with the federal government, even though this was Yudel Krinsky’s show.
The Krinsky and Shemtov factions do not get along all the time, and this was Levi’s attempt to get himself some kavod. Krinksy ran the show from Crown Heights, got Clinton passports assistance for the family, and had the last word.
am
Rabbi Shemtov did more than any of YOU to try and help the situation so STOP WITH THE CRITICISM you have no place to be saying loshon hora about him!
Beis Chana Seminary of Milano Italy
G-d bless you Rabbi Levi Shemtov.. you did the right thing and we thank you for getting involved and trying to help our fellow Shluchim.. Moshiach Now!
Marcia
Rabbi Shemtov called Rabbi Holtzberg to see if they were okay. To say anything else about Rabbi Shemtov is nothing but loshen horah. Any criticism of Rabbi Shemtov is inexcusable. The terrorist picked up the phone. What should Rabbi Shemtov have done? Hung up without trying to do something? He is a Rabbi with years of experience helping people. Except this person was a murderer. Rabbi Shemtov deserves our compassion, not criticism.
CHM
Sheesh , chevra.
He tried his best , perhaps he should have contacted officials but who is to say he even had time.I think in his position, he did the best he could.
I am pretty sure he’s suitably haunted and shaken up by the tragic pleading of that voice , how could you not be?
A yasher koach, levi!