Dec. 29, 2008
dovid eliezrie
THE JERUSALEM POST
Jewish tradition tells us the first 30 days of mourning are the most intense. This week we mark end of this period since the terrorist attack against the Chabad Center in Mumbai. It's been a watershed event for world Jewry and Chabad. It will have a long lasting effect in diverse ways.
It has sparked an existential dialogue within Chabad. "Why have we become a target for the unfathomable." A few days after the attack, a group of Jewish security experts told me, "You guys are on the frontlines, it was only a matter of time." That's the practical perspective you would expect from security gurus. At a farbrengen held last week for California shluchim that question was at the core of the evening. Rabbi Ezra Schochet, rosh yeshiva, dissected the issue. The intellectual inquiry did not bring him, or us, solace. At the end he said, "We have a question, a question without any answer."
FOR MILLENNIA Jews have grappled with the same questions, seeking to pierce the mystery of divine providence. Shluchim were promised special blessings. Years ago a Chabad supporter suggested to the Rebbe in a private audience that he give more kudos to his shluchim. While the Rebbe showed appreciation, it was done in his classic understated style. Hassidim felt it an honor to serve the Rebbe's higher purposes. After hearing the question, the Rebbe's face took an austere look. He told the man, "They all have children."
Out of the close to 4,000 couples, you can't count on one hand those who do not have children. It's not uncommon in Chabad to find a childless young couples in business make a career change to become shluchim to benefit from this unique spiritual blessing. So how could we, who have had our lives so enriched with so many blessings, lose two of our best to evil is a question gnawing at our souls.
While we have no answer, most of us have taken consolation and inspiration from the Rebbe's message to Kfar Chabad in 1956 after five children and their teacher were killed by terrorists. "In your rebuilding you will find consolation." Last Thursday night the parents of Rabbi Gavriel and Rebbitzen Rivka Holtzberg returned to Mumbai to light the menora. Their message was clear terror will not deter us, only prompt us to achieve more.
Around the world many of us have undertaken new projects. Our community in Yorba Linda, California is writing a Torah scroll in their memory. Just down the freeway, the Chabad Center is placing a shaliah at University of California at Irvine, a hotbed of radical Arab activism. Across the world similar initiatives are being launched.
This tragedy touched a deep chord in the Jewish world.
FOR SOME 36 hours millions watched the drama unfolding. Jews were hunted down and killed for being Jews. Chabad was not attacked as a symbol of the West, as J. J. Goldberg attempted to claim in the Forward. Clearly there were more prominent Western targets in Mumbai. Islamic terrorists sought out Chabad as an objective. A nondescript six-story building tucked away in one the most demographically dense cities in the world. The terrorists searched and found the only rabbi living in the city. Chabad may have been the specific target, but it was an attack on the Jewish people as a whole. It impacted all aspects of the Jewish world. The six victims rooted in the world of Satmar, secular Jews, Zionists and non Zionists.
Sadly in death we were all united. It reminded us of our vulnerability as Jews. It wasn't too long ago that armies marched across Europe in search of Jews, now a force based on religious fundamentalism reaches out from the mountains of Pakistan with the same goals.
THE ATTACK was personal; for the untold numbers of Jews who know a Chabad shaliah, their friend was in mourning. Gabi's father had been my classmate in yeshiva, my son with Gabi himself. Chabad may have grown but we are all interconnected. Our personal pain of reached deep into every Jewish community in the world. Tens of thousands attended hundreds of memorials.
It accentuated a reality that challenges the status quo of Jewish life. Today Chabad is the largest Jewish organization in the world. It eclipses in size and scope all other Jewish groups. As Andrew Silow-Carroll of the New Jersey Jewish News noted, the event has "repositioned Chabad as the de facto Jewish vanguard, and made other Jewish groups acknowledge it." The attack has sparked and rekindling of the relationship between Chabad and other parts of the haredi world.
The schism has deep roots reaching back to split between hassidim and mitnagdim two centuries ago. In modern times it has been intensified for a variety of reasons. The messiah issue worried many. The haredi world responded to the challenge of modernity by erecting barriers. Chabad chose to engage it, look for the good and offer its contribution to all. While most haredim stepped back into their own world, Chabad reached out to others.
AT THE funeral, standing together with hassidic rabbis were President Shimon Peres and leaders of Israel's key parties. Their participation was reflective of Chabad's willingness to play a role in larger society while decisively maintaining Jewish principles. Mumbai was the catalyst for the haredi community to seek reconciliation. As the editor of Yated Ne'eman (different than its Israeli namesake) in the US, a paper that historically would not acknowledge Chabad, wrote in article lauding the Holtzberg's self sacrifice, "We are tribes of a same nation." Strangely it's the shluchim around the world who have laid the ground for this rapprochement. At the shluchim convention held in New York a week before the attack, leaders of Satmar sat at tables of shluchim they have become friends with during their business travels. In recent years even the most insular Lithuanian yeshivot have discovered the importance of outreach.
A few days after their passing, JEM, Chabad's producer of film and video released a hastily assembled memorial video on their lives. They had discovered a rare clip of Rivka Holtzberg talking about her life in Mumbai. Her warmth, charm and inner beauty radiate on the screen. One moment deeply touched me, when asked how can you have dozens for dinner every night, she responds in the typical Israeli, "Zeh kef - its fun." Her joy in giving to others was palatable. If only if each of us could capture a part of that enthusiasm and infuse it into our lives, how much better the world would be.
The writer is a Chabad shaliah in Yorba Linda, California. rabbi@ocjewish.com
Showing posts with label Rivka Holtszberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rivka Holtszberg. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Chicago Jews mourn Mumbai victims
For many Jewish travelers, it is a beacon of hospitality in a foreign land. But on the evening of Nov. 26 in Mumbai, the Chabad House became the scene of horrific crimes that reminded many Jews of a darker time decades ago when they were targeted and tortured just for being Jewish.
On Wednesday, the Chicago Jewish community will pay tribute to six lives lost inside the Chabad Lubavitch Center in Mumbai and remind each other of his or her responsibility to bring light into darkness and repair the world.
“In the Jewish tradition, we know the world is not perfect,” said Steve Nasatir, president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. “It’s no question they were targeted here. It’s selection to a certain extent. The word selection [of the terrorists] goes back to the ‘40s and the Nazi death camps. There’s a haunting connection.”
More than 170 lives were lost in the gunfire and explosions that rocked Mumbai last week. Media reports indicate that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife, Rivkah, and their guests Rav Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, Yocheved Orpaz and Norma Schwartzblat-Rabinovitch were tortured and killed by the militant Islamists who seized the Chabad House and two luxury hotels.
Chabad-Lubavitch is one of the largest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism, and is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. The Hebrew letters that spell Chabad are a Hebrew acronym for Chochmah, Binah, Da’at meaning wisdom, understanding and knowledge, respectively.
With the goal of encouraging Jews to learn more about their heritage and to practice Judaism, emissaries are dispatched around the world to reach out to their own, giving Jews a place to find kosher food, pray and reconnect with their faith. Though ultra-orthodox in their own practice, Chabad Houses welcome Jews of all branches--Reform, Reconstruction, Conservative, and modern Orthodox.
There are 31 Chabad Houses in Illinois. For financial reasons, plans to build a 32nd in downtown Chicago were placed on hold earlier this year.
Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, regional director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, said the plan for a memorial service came from people who had encountered the Holtzbergs in Mumbai who he said “took care of every person like their own brother and sister.”
He hopes the memorial service demonstrates the importance of finding unity and common ground despite ideological and theological differences. He also hopes it awakens people to the reality that the attacks in Mumbai could happen in Britain, Beirut or our back yard.
“This was an event that shook the Jewish people and Chabad to its core,” he said. “This is 9/11 happening all over again.”
The memorial service is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn North Shore, 5300 W. Touhy Ave., Skokie.
On Wednesday, the Chicago Jewish community will pay tribute to six lives lost inside the Chabad Lubavitch Center in Mumbai and remind each other of his or her responsibility to bring light into darkness and repair the world.
“In the Jewish tradition, we know the world is not perfect,” said Steve Nasatir, president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago. “It’s no question they were targeted here. It’s selection to a certain extent. The word selection [of the terrorists] goes back to the ‘40s and the Nazi death camps. There’s a haunting connection.”
More than 170 lives were lost in the gunfire and explosions that rocked Mumbai last week. Media reports indicate that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, his wife, Rivkah, and their guests Rav Aryeh Leibish Teitelbaum, Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, Yocheved Orpaz and Norma Schwartzblat-Rabinovitch were tortured and killed by the militant Islamists who seized the Chabad House and two luxury hotels.
Chabad-Lubavitch is one of the largest Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism, and is based in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, N.Y. The Hebrew letters that spell Chabad are a Hebrew acronym for Chochmah, Binah, Da’at meaning wisdom, understanding and knowledge, respectively.
With the goal of encouraging Jews to learn more about their heritage and to practice Judaism, emissaries are dispatched around the world to reach out to their own, giving Jews a place to find kosher food, pray and reconnect with their faith. Though ultra-orthodox in their own practice, Chabad Houses welcome Jews of all branches--Reform, Reconstruction, Conservative, and modern Orthodox.
There are 31 Chabad Houses in Illinois. For financial reasons, plans to build a 32nd in downtown Chicago were placed on hold earlier this year.
Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz, regional director of Lubavitch Chabad of Illinois, said the plan for a memorial service came from people who had encountered the Holtzbergs in Mumbai who he said “took care of every person like their own brother and sister.”
He hopes the memorial service demonstrates the importance of finding unity and common ground despite ideological and theological differences. He also hopes it awakens people to the reality that the attacks in Mumbai could happen in Britain, Beirut or our back yard.
“This was an event that shook the Jewish people and Chabad to its core,” he said. “This is 9/11 happening all over again.”
The memorial service is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Holiday Inn North Shore, 5300 W. Touhy Ave., Skokie.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Rabbi Holtzburg, Killed in Mumbai
By Athol Bloomer
St. Louis, Mo. (Catholic Online) -
As I write this here in the Hebrew Catholic Center in St Louis I am still in shock about the murder of the young Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzburg and his wife Rivka Holtzburg. In recent months I have been following the terrible persecution and killing of Christians in India by Hindu fundamentalists. The media hardly seems to mention what is happening. Now we see such violent Islamist terror attacks in Mumbai (or Bombay as most of us call it).
I learned on Saturday that one of the places attacked was the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai. Then, we heard of the little two year old son of the Holtlzbergs being safe but that his trousers were soaked in blood. Then a Carmelite nun of Jewish ancestry sent me the news report of the death of the Rabbi and his wife. As a Catholic Jew I felt the pain that all Jews are feeling at this time. It may be strange but there is a sense in which Jews share in the joys and sufferings of all other Jews. As someone who has known many Chabad Jews and studied with Chabad Rabbis and been fed by them at Chabad Houses I felt it more keenly perhaps than some.
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were emissaries of the Lubavitch Chabad movement who gave up their homes and families in order to serve in far off India. They ran food programs, drug prevention programs, medical services, prison and hospital visitations and classes on Jewish learning among many other things. Now, this wonderful young couple, are dead and the world has lost two workers for the good and the light in a world growing darker.
While I didn’t know them personally I know others like them.
When I lived in Thailand I would attend the Synagogue and the Chabad House in Bangkok and I saw the dedication and commitment of the Chabad Rabbis and their families. I attend the huge Passover Seders at which everyone was welcome. They helped all in need not just religious Jews – secular Jews and non-Jews with no discrimination. Many Jewish communities around the world would have no Rabbis at all if not for the Chabad Rabbis who will go anywhere in the world to serve God and the Rebbe. For example an orthodox Jewish family I stayed with each weekend in the 1980’s assisted the Chabad in reviving the Jewish community in Tasmania that had almost died out.
They are known as the 'Black Army of the Rebbe' as they follow the teachings of the seven Rebbes of Lubavitch and especially those of their late Tzadik, Rebbe Menachem Schneersohn. A Rebbe or Tzadik is the spiritual leader of a Hasidic group who follows the way of love, joy, simplicity and mercy in worshipping God as taught by the founder of Hasidism - the Baal Shem Tov of the 17th century. The first Lubavitch Rebbe was Schneur Zalman of Liadi known as the Alter Rebbe and the author of the mystical book called “Tanya”. He took the ‘heart’ teachings of Hasidism and introduced a more intellectual approach called Chabad.
Chabad stands for Chokmah(Wisdom), Binah (Understanding) and Daat (Knowledge) which represents the Divine Face of the Divine Man in Jewish mysticism. The seventh and last Rebbe of Chabad encouraged many young people to give their lives in the service of God and Judaism by becoming emissaries (apostles) to the Jews spread throughout the world. Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife were two such young people.
I remember sitting in the 1980’s with Chabad Rabbi Finman in Melbourne Australia [who I was studying with] as he translated the Rebbe’s inspiring teachings from Yiddish into English for the whole Yeshivah. I was inspired that day as Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka were inspired by the Rebbe to give their lives to God’s service. The rebbe inspired in us a devotion to the Mashiach (Messiah). Now through the evil of others they have become Jewish martyrs and given their blood for God and the Jewish people.
I pray that their sacrifice will bring others to God and that from this tragedy will come good fruit. Let us pray for their souls and the souls of all the others lost in this terror onslaught and for their loved ones to be consoled. The Jewish custom is to say Psalms on behalf of the dead so maybe we could all say a Psalm for them too.
****
Athol is an Australian of Anglo-Jewish ancestry who became a Catholic at the age of 24 in 1987. He is involved in teaching the Jewish roots of the Catholic Faith and is a member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics
St. Louis, Mo. (Catholic Online) -
As I write this here in the Hebrew Catholic Center in St Louis I am still in shock about the murder of the young Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzburg and his wife Rivka Holtzburg. In recent months I have been following the terrible persecution and killing of Christians in India by Hindu fundamentalists. The media hardly seems to mention what is happening. Now we see such violent Islamist terror attacks in Mumbai (or Bombay as most of us call it).
I learned on Saturday that one of the places attacked was the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai. Then, we heard of the little two year old son of the Holtlzbergs being safe but that his trousers were soaked in blood. Then a Carmelite nun of Jewish ancestry sent me the news report of the death of the Rabbi and his wife. As a Catholic Jew I felt the pain that all Jews are feeling at this time. It may be strange but there is a sense in which Jews share in the joys and sufferings of all other Jews. As someone who has known many Chabad Jews and studied with Chabad Rabbis and been fed by them at Chabad Houses I felt it more keenly perhaps than some.
Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were emissaries of the Lubavitch Chabad movement who gave up their homes and families in order to serve in far off India. They ran food programs, drug prevention programs, medical services, prison and hospital visitations and classes on Jewish learning among many other things. Now, this wonderful young couple, are dead and the world has lost two workers for the good and the light in a world growing darker.
While I didn’t know them personally I know others like them.
When I lived in Thailand I would attend the Synagogue and the Chabad House in Bangkok and I saw the dedication and commitment of the Chabad Rabbis and their families. I attend the huge Passover Seders at which everyone was welcome. They helped all in need not just religious Jews – secular Jews and non-Jews with no discrimination. Many Jewish communities around the world would have no Rabbis at all if not for the Chabad Rabbis who will go anywhere in the world to serve God and the Rebbe. For example an orthodox Jewish family I stayed with each weekend in the 1980’s assisted the Chabad in reviving the Jewish community in Tasmania that had almost died out.
They are known as the 'Black Army of the Rebbe' as they follow the teachings of the seven Rebbes of Lubavitch and especially those of their late Tzadik, Rebbe Menachem Schneersohn. A Rebbe or Tzadik is the spiritual leader of a Hasidic group who follows the way of love, joy, simplicity and mercy in worshipping God as taught by the founder of Hasidism - the Baal Shem Tov of the 17th century. The first Lubavitch Rebbe was Schneur Zalman of Liadi known as the Alter Rebbe and the author of the mystical book called “Tanya”. He took the ‘heart’ teachings of Hasidism and introduced a more intellectual approach called Chabad.
Chabad stands for Chokmah(Wisdom), Binah (Understanding) and Daat (Knowledge) which represents the Divine Face of the Divine Man in Jewish mysticism. The seventh and last Rebbe of Chabad encouraged many young people to give their lives in the service of God and Judaism by becoming emissaries (apostles) to the Jews spread throughout the world. Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife were two such young people.
I remember sitting in the 1980’s with Chabad Rabbi Finman in Melbourne Australia [who I was studying with] as he translated the Rebbe’s inspiring teachings from Yiddish into English for the whole Yeshivah. I was inspired that day as Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka were inspired by the Rebbe to give their lives to God’s service. The rebbe inspired in us a devotion to the Mashiach (Messiah). Now through the evil of others they have become Jewish martyrs and given their blood for God and the Jewish people.
I pray that their sacrifice will bring others to God and that from this tragedy will come good fruit. Let us pray for their souls and the souls of all the others lost in this terror onslaught and for their loved ones to be consoled. The Jewish custom is to say Psalms on behalf of the dead so maybe we could all say a Psalm for them too.
****
Athol is an Australian of Anglo-Jewish ancestry who became a Catholic at the age of 24 in 1987. He is involved in teaching the Jewish roots of the Catholic Faith and is a member of the Association of Hebrew Catholics
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