Rabbi and Wife Killed in Mumbai Attacks Remembered in South Bay

SOUTH BAY, CA — South Bay Jewish leaders were stunned to hear that their friend and colleague, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivkah, were targeted victims in last week’s terrorist attacks in India.

Rabbi Sholom Pinson of Chabad of the South Bay attended the same school as Holtzberg and lived just a block from his childhood home in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Describing him as “extremely bright and dedicated,” Rabbi Yossi Mintz of Chabad Beach Cities was Holtzberg’s instructor at a Jewish camp in New Jersey in 1994.
Rabbi Yitzie Magalnic of Chabad Jewish Center of Palos Verdes knows Holtzberg’s family and grew up in the same Brooklyn neighborhood.

“This is a very tight-knit community,” said Magalnic, referring to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Judaism. “We all grew up in the same community, in the same schools. We share the same philosophy, and we do the same work.”

The three Jewish centers will hold memorial services this week in memory of the Holtzbergs and others who were slain in one of the worst terrorist attacks in India’s history. The first service is tonight at Chabad of South Bay in Lomita; a special service and shabbas dinner will be held at the Beach Cities center on Friday, and a memorial service is slated for Sunday at the Palos Verdes center.

News of the attacks, and the deaths of the rabbi and his wife, both in their 20s, spread quickly late last week. Mintz sent out urgent e-mails to his staff and supporters, pleading for prayers and asking people to perform mitzvahs, or good deeds, in support of the family.

“This is everyone’s worst nightmare,”

Mintz said Tuesday. “Here’s an individual that brought to life so many things to so many people, and he was targeted because of who he is.”
Rooted in the 18th century, the Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement draws thousands of adherents and about a million who regularly attend services. Since the 1950 s, leaders have encouraged young families to move out beyond its base in New York and establish Jewish centers around the world.

There are about 4,000 “emissary” families now in 47 states and 73 countries. They provide everything from services to meals to schooling, with the goal of keeping the traditions of Hasidic Judaism alive in an increasingly secular and, in some cases, hostile world.

Many of these young families grew up and studied together in Crown Heights, a neighborhood of Brooklyn.

“His life was totally dedicated to selflessness, to helping others,” said Pinson, who lived about a block from Holtzberg’s childhood home. “This is beyond comprehension.”

It appears that Holtzberg and his wife, who was raised in Israel, were targeted. They had established one of the only Jewish centers in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) five years ago, and it was a known hub for Israeli travelers and business people.

A memorial service for the couple was held Tuesday in Israel. Their 2-year-old son, who was rescued by a maid, was flown to Israel, where he will live with relatives.

Tonight’s memorial in Lomita will include remarks from Dr. Sherwin Isenberg, an opthalmologist at UCLA who was at the Holtzbergs’ synagogue for shabbat the Friday before the attacks. Isenberg, who runs several eye clinics in India, said at a previous memorial that the rabbi spoke about the need to care for and protect animals.

“Here was a brilliant and dedicated rabbi detailing how we should be humane to our animals, only to be massacred by human animals four days later,” said the physician, who also works at County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center near Torrance.

Magalnic said the rabbi and his wife were well aware of the risks involved in establishing a center in India, which does not have a large Jewish population. The fact that he was targeted for his religion is an “old story,” said the rabbi from the Jewish center in Rancho Palos Verdes. “But every time it happens it becomes very fresh.

”It reminds you that there are evil forces out there,“ he said. ”Our philosophy is that we’re to combat evil with kindness by continuing to reach out to the world. This is never going to dampen our resolve to do God’s work.”

melissa.evans@dailybreeze.com

WANT TO GO?

Chabad of South Bay will hold a memorial service at 7:30 p.m. today at the Jewish center, 2173 W. Lomita Blvd., Lomita.

The Jewish Community Center Chabad will hold a special shabbat and dinner at 6 p.m. Friday at its facility, 2108 Vail Ave., Redondo Beach.

Chabad Jewish Center of Palos Verdes will hold a memorial service at 5 p.m. Sunday at its facility, 28041 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 202-203, Rancho Palos Verdes.