Mumbai.
It seems so far away, so so far away. Yet last week it was just next door.
I knew one of the murdered victims from yeshiva. Bentzion Kruman. He was a sweet soul. He was a gentle soul. Why? WHY?
What is the rationale behind killing an innocent man or woman? What is gained?!?
What kind of world are we living in??
A human life being ripped away is very, very sad. Knowing and having been touched by that human being makes it all the more poignant.
Bentzi, you had so much more to offer this world! Your wife needs you! Your children need you! Your parents need you! Your friends need you! And yet you are gone.
Due to no fault of your own. But rather to the blind insane hatred that was visited upon you that dreadful day.
We wonder, did you know that you were not going to walk out of there alive? Did you at least have a feeling of false hope? Were you hungry? Thirsty? I'm sure you were worried about your family, but did you really think that they would never see you again??
Did the monsters taunt you? Did they allow you the dignity of being a human being in your final hours? When the Malach Hamoves came for you did it hurt? Did you feel the pain?
We are crying. Our eyes have ceased to shed tears as we watched your young son say Kaddish yet we are crying. We are weeping.
Our hearts are broken.
Klal Yosroel is broken
The world is broken.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Jews murdered in Mumbai's Chabad House were tortured first
Mumbai hospital doctors were horrified by the condition of the six Israeli bodies recovered from the smashed, blood-spattered rooms of Chabad Center Monday. Local and Israeli pathologists confirmed they were tortured by their Islamist terrorist captors before being bound together and killed in cold blood.
DEBKAfile adds: Israelis were the largest group of foreigners murdered by the Islamist terrorists. The single captured gunman confirmed they had been specifically targeted. The six bodies were flown home by an Israeli Air Force plane and are being laid to rest Tuesday in their home towns in state ceremonies.
Laid to rest Tuesday, Dec. 2 in state ceremonies in six Israeli towns are Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinovitz, 50, from Mexico, who was due to immigrate to Israel and two of whose children already live there; the center's director Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 26; Ms Yocheved Harpaz, 59, mother of four from Givatayim; Betzion Chroman, 28, father of three, who held dual US-Israeli citizenship, and Leibisch Teitelbaum, father of 8, an American from Brooklyn.
Israel's president, political leaders, rabbis and tens of thousands of mourners attended the eulogies for the dead at Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv and their funerals. Rivka Holtzberg was six months pregnant. Her two-year old child, Moshe Holtzberg, was saved by his Indian nanny who fled the building with him in her arms. He was found later to be covered in bruises from a beating.
An Indian doctor, who conducted the post-mortem of the victims in Mumbai, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself (the first day of the Islamist terrorist attack). It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again."
"Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing," a doctor said.
Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: "It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatized. A bomb blast victim's body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words," he said.
At the Mumbai synagogue, members of the Jewish community, Israeli diplomats and visitors gathered Monday for a memorial for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzman and his wife Rivka, directors of the Chabad Center which provided a home from home for Israelis and Jews visiting India. Their two-year old son, rescued by his Indian nanny, cried for his parents. His nanny, Sandra, travelled to Israel with the child and his grandparents.
DEBKAfile adds: Israelis were the largest group of foreigners murdered by the Islamist terrorists. The single captured gunman confirmed they had been specifically targeted. The six bodies were flown home by an Israeli Air Force plane and are being laid to rest Tuesday in their home towns in state ceremonies.
Laid to rest Tuesday, Dec. 2 in state ceremonies in six Israeli towns are Norma Schwartzblatt-Rabinovitz, 50, from Mexico, who was due to immigrate to Israel and two of whose children already live there; the center's director Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his wife Rivka, 26; Ms Yocheved Harpaz, 59, mother of four from Givatayim; Betzion Chroman, 28, father of three, who held dual US-Israeli citizenship, and Leibisch Teitelbaum, father of 8, an American from Brooklyn.
Israel's president, political leaders, rabbis and tens of thousands of mourners attended the eulogies for the dead at Kfar Chabad near Tel Aviv and their funerals. Rivka Holtzberg was six months pregnant. Her two-year old child, Moshe Holtzberg, was saved by his Indian nanny who fled the building with him in her arms. He was found later to be covered in bruises from a beating.
An Indian doctor, who conducted the post-mortem of the victims in Mumbai, said: "Of all the bodies, the Israeli victims bore the maximum torture marks. It was clear that they were killed on the 26th itself (the first day of the Islamist terrorist attack). It was obvious that they were tied up and tortured before they were killed. It was so bad that I do not want to go over the details even in my head again."
"Bombay has a long history of terror. I have seen bodies of riot victims, gang war and previous terror attacks like bomb blasts. But this was entirely different. It was shocking and disturbing," a doctor said.
Asked what was different about the victims of the incident, another doctor said: "It was very strange. I have seen so many dead bodies in my life, and was yet traumatized. A bomb blast victim's body might have been torn apart and could be a very disturbing sight. But the bodies of the victims in this attack bore such signs about the kind of violence of urban warfare that I am still unable to put my thoughts to words," he said.
At the Mumbai synagogue, members of the Jewish community, Israeli diplomats and visitors gathered Monday for a memorial for Rabbi Gavriel Holtzman and his wife Rivka, directors of the Chabad Center which provided a home from home for Israelis and Jews visiting India. Their two-year old son, rescued by his Indian nanny, cried for his parents. His nanny, Sandra, travelled to Israel with the child and his grandparents.
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