NEW YORK-JERUSALEM (EJP)—The funerals of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were killed in the terrorist attack against the Chabad House in Mumbai, India, will likely not take place before Monday afternoon, the Chabad-Lubavitch website said Sunday.
Israeli embassy officials in India are preparing the necessary paperwork and awaiting clearance from New Delhi to transport the deceased to Israel for burial.
Other victims identified at the Chabad House include kosher supervisors Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a US born scion of the Volover Chasidic dynasty who lived in Israel, and Bentzion Chroman, an Israeli from the town of Bat Yam, and Yocheved Orpaz, an Israeli who was in India to visit her daughter and grandchildren. A sixth victim has yet to be officially named.
Rikva Holtzberg’s parents, Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg of Afula, Israel, arrived in Mumbai on Friday to be with their grandson Moshe, who was rescued from the Rohr Chabad Center – also known as the Nariman House – by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, who hided from the Islamist terrorists for 12 hours.
The family marked Moshe’s two-year birthday.
An Israeli air force plane, due to take off for Mumbai on Sunday afternoon to repatriate the bodies, had been delayed for a few hours, a foreign ministry
spokesman said in Jerusalem, after earlier reporting that it had left.
The plane was due to take representatives of the army, the rabbinate and foreign ministry, as well as forensic experts, but had been held up as all the necessary visas had not been obtained.
The Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization in Israel, relaying a request from the Rosenberg and Holtzberg families, asked the Israeli government to facilitate the nanny’s entry to the country.
The Israeli media also highlighted the case of Sandra Samuel with news websites reporting calls for her to be given leave to come to Israel indefinitely or even be declared a so-called righteous gentile for her role in saving two-year-old Moshe.
"We didn't get any application yet but that doesn't mean we won't approve it," said interior ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad.
"If we get the application, I am sure that we will consider all that took place."
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had praised the nanny's "heroic" rescue of
the son and said that "during a time of terrible sadness, her courage
reaffirms our faith in the capacity of good to triumph over evil."
Nearly 200 people are now known to have died in the attacks which ravaged the Indian commercial capital, hitting five-star hotels and other targets frequented by Westerners as well as Beit Chabad.
Israeli newspapers gave blanket coverage to the Mumbai carnage in Sunday's editions, their first since the confirmation of the Israeli dead late on Friday.
The top-selling Yediot Aharonot daily devoted over a dozen pages to the attacks, the Maariv newspaper used its first 17.
Yediot carried extensive criticism of the Indian commando operation and the length of time it had taken to overcome the militants.
"Ten terrorists, who, according to the findings of the investigation, arrived by rubber raft at the shore of Mumbai carrying machine guns, grenades and dry rations in their luggage, succeeded -- almost inconceivably -- in keeping almost 1,000 commando troops and counter-terrorism combat units occupied for three days, in several battle sites," one article said.
But the Israeli foreign ministry put out a statement to domestic media distancing itself from the criticism of the Indian security forces.
“We are convinced that the Indian forces did everything they could to prevent harm from coming to the captives and civilians during the storming of the Chabad House," Yediot's website quoted ministry spokesman Yossi Levi as saying.
Showing posts with label Bentzion Chroman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bentzion Chroman. Show all posts
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Mumbai horror: Rescue workers shocked by Chabad massacre site
Ronen Medzini
11.29.08, 23:57
Israel News
Mumbai horror: Rescue workers shocked by Chabad massacre site
Victim identification forces describe terrifying scene at Mumbai Jewish center; ZAKA officials encounter bound bodies, scattered prayer books, live grenades. Rabbi's wife apparently murdered early on, body found draped in prayer shawl
Israel Police forensic teams will be heading to Mumbai Sunday on an Air Force plane in order to offer their assistance in identifying the remaining bodies in the Chabad House massacre.
Officials are saying that eight or nine people were murdered at the Jewish center. Six bodies have been identified so far – five Israelis and a Jewish Mexican national.
The names of the five Israeli victims have been cleared for publication:
* Rivka Holtzberg
* Gavriel Holtzberg
* Leibish Teitlebaum
* Bentzion Chroman
* Yocheved Orpaz
Shuki Brif, a member of the ZAKA disaster victim identification force sent to Mumbai, recounted the horrifying scenes at the site of the massacre.
"When we entered the Chabad House, we saw a home completely ruined by hand grenades. The building was completely destroyed and we saw live grenades on the floor. It was a shocking sight. Prayer books and many other objects were all over the place. It was a shocking sight even for a veteran ZAKA member."
11.29.08, 23:57
Israel News
Mumbai horror: Rescue workers shocked by Chabad massacre site
Victim identification forces describe terrifying scene at Mumbai Jewish center; ZAKA officials encounter bound bodies, scattered prayer books, live grenades. Rabbi's wife apparently murdered early on, body found draped in prayer shawl
Israel Police forensic teams will be heading to Mumbai Sunday on an Air Force plane in order to offer their assistance in identifying the remaining bodies in the Chabad House massacre.
Officials are saying that eight or nine people were murdered at the Jewish center. Six bodies have been identified so far – five Israelis and a Jewish Mexican national.
The names of the five Israeli victims have been cleared for publication:
* Rivka Holtzberg
* Gavriel Holtzberg
* Leibish Teitlebaum
* Bentzion Chroman
* Yocheved Orpaz
Shuki Brif, a member of the ZAKA disaster victim identification force sent to Mumbai, recounted the horrifying scenes at the site of the massacre.
"When we entered the Chabad House, we saw a home completely ruined by hand grenades. The building was completely destroyed and we saw live grenades on the floor. It was a shocking sight. Prayer books and many other objects were all over the place. It was a shocking sight even for a veteran ZAKA member."
'Bentzion was slumped over a Talmud'
Nov. 30, 2008
Tovah Lazaroff , THE JERUSALEM POST
Bentzion Chroman, who survived an earthquake in China earlier this year, was killed when a terrorist invaded the Mumbai Chabad House where he had stopped briefly on Wednesday for the afternoon minhah prayer. A Zaka rescue and recovery organization spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that Chroman was found in the library slumped over an open Talmud.
On Saturday night, hours after hearing of Chroman's death, his relative Binyamin Fogel told the Post that the presence in that building of his beloved friend was entirely accidental.
Chroman, 28, had gone to India at the request of his friend, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, to help supervise kashrut. Teitelbaum was also killed in the attack.
"Bentzion was not supposed to be there. But [Teitelbaum] asked him to go as a personal favor," Fogel said.
They had been scheduled to head out earlier this month, but the short trip was delayed to last week as a result of visa problems. The pair were scheduled leave India on Thursday so they could be back in Israel for Shabbat.
On Wednesday, Teitelbaum called his wife to say they were going to the Chabad House to pray.
At the family's Bat Yam home, Chroman's wife initially did not even know that her husband was in the Chabad House. At home with three children - aged five, two and eight months - she began to worry when she could not reach him. News of the attack only made her more anxious.
Her fears and that of her family were confirmed when contact was made with Teitelbaum's relatives and they learned that the two men had been in the building at the time of the attack.
"There was so much misinformation," said Fogel. Initially they were hopeful that maybe the men had left before the attack and were hiding somewhere, unable to call.
But the reports they head from Israeli officials and people on the ground in India continued to paint a bleak picture. Someone checked at the men's hotel and confirmed that they had not been there since Wednesday.
By Friday, it was clear that they were probably at the Chabad House. Right before Shabbat the family spoke with an official from Foreign Ministry who said that nothing was known yet, so the family entered Shabbat without any word on Bentzion's fate.
They prayed for the best over Shabbat, even as some of the visitors to the Bat Yam home told them that the death had been reported on the news.
Official word, however, did not come until Saturday night, said Fogel.
"During Shabbat we lived with the hope that we would have good news," he said. But as night descended on Saturday and they parted from the Sabbath, their worst fears were confirmed.
During the ordeal, Chroman's parents had been on a trip to the United States with one of his brothers to attend a wedding in New York. Although Chroman was born in Israel, according to Fogel, his father is from Chicago. He believed they heard the terrible news before the start of Shabbat there and were now trying to get on a flight back to Israel.
"I still do not believe that he won't return," said Fogel, who last spoke with Chroman on November 20.
He recalled how proud Chroman was of his oldest son, who was just learning to read and study in school. "Bentzion was a very special person. He was so happy."
Tovah Lazaroff , THE JERUSALEM POST
Bentzion Chroman, who survived an earthquake in China earlier this year, was killed when a terrorist invaded the Mumbai Chabad House where he had stopped briefly on Wednesday for the afternoon minhah prayer. A Zaka rescue and recovery organization spokesman told The Jerusalem Post that Chroman was found in the library slumped over an open Talmud.
On Saturday night, hours after hearing of Chroman's death, his relative Binyamin Fogel told the Post that the presence in that building of his beloved friend was entirely accidental.
Chroman, 28, had gone to India at the request of his friend, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, to help supervise kashrut. Teitelbaum was also killed in the attack.
"Bentzion was not supposed to be there. But [Teitelbaum] asked him to go as a personal favor," Fogel said.
They had been scheduled to head out earlier this month, but the short trip was delayed to last week as a result of visa problems. The pair were scheduled leave India on Thursday so they could be back in Israel for Shabbat.
On Wednesday, Teitelbaum called his wife to say they were going to the Chabad House to pray.
At the family's Bat Yam home, Chroman's wife initially did not even know that her husband was in the Chabad House. At home with three children - aged five, two and eight months - she began to worry when she could not reach him. News of the attack only made her more anxious.
Her fears and that of her family were confirmed when contact was made with Teitelbaum's relatives and they learned that the two men had been in the building at the time of the attack.
"There was so much misinformation," said Fogel. Initially they were hopeful that maybe the men had left before the attack and were hiding somewhere, unable to call.
But the reports they head from Israeli officials and people on the ground in India continued to paint a bleak picture. Someone checked at the men's hotel and confirmed that they had not been there since Wednesday.
By Friday, it was clear that they were probably at the Chabad House. Right before Shabbat the family spoke with an official from Foreign Ministry who said that nothing was known yet, so the family entered Shabbat without any word on Bentzion's fate.
They prayed for the best over Shabbat, even as some of the visitors to the Bat Yam home told them that the death had been reported on the news.
Official word, however, did not come until Saturday night, said Fogel.
"During Shabbat we lived with the hope that we would have good news," he said. But as night descended on Saturday and they parted from the Sabbath, their worst fears were confirmed.
During the ordeal, Chroman's parents had been on a trip to the United States with one of his brothers to attend a wedding in New York. Although Chroman was born in Israel, according to Fogel, his father is from Chicago. He believed they heard the terrible news before the start of Shabbat there and were now trying to get on a flight back to Israel.
"I still do not believe that he won't return," said Fogel, who last spoke with Chroman on November 20.
He recalled how proud Chroman was of his oldest son, who was just learning to read and study in school. "Bentzion was a very special person. He was so happy."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)