Prashanth G N/TNN
Bangalore, Dec 5: Had they acted on their plans the couple would have been well and truly alive with their little child Moshe. A week after the Mumbai attacks it turns out that the Jewish couple, Rabbi Gavriel Holztberg and Rivkah Holtzberg, killed by terrorists in Nariman House, had finalized plans two weeks before the attacks to visit and open a Chabad Jewish Centre in Bangalore similar to the one in Mumbai.
While the attacks occurred on November 26, the plans for the Bangalore centre had been made earlier. Had the couple arrived before November 26 and joined their friends, they would have inaugurated the centre in December first week and then left for Mumbai - which meant they would not have been in Mumbai at the time of the attacks.
A childhood friend and classmate of Gavriel Holtzberg, Mordechai Kirschenbaum speaking from California on Thursday morning, told TOI: "Gavriel was facilitating the setting up of the centre in Bangalore. He was to visit the city and open the centre. He was in fact making arrangements for another Jewish couple to come to Bangalore and launch the centre. He was co-ordinating as he was the Chabad Jewish representative in India and was to go back to Mumbai after opening the centre. He was the Chabad facilitator in India.''
Kirschebaum added: "The plans are all ready. It would have been wonderful to have had them around. Gavriel would not be able to see the fruits of his labour. He had worked very hard for the centre. We will go ahead with their wishes and bring up the Chabad Bangalore Centre in about two weeks. I am told that the couple for whom Gavriel was making arrangements are going around to get everything in place.''
Interestingly, a report in the `Jerusalem Post' on December 2 confirms the Bangalore move. The Post mentions that Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Chabad's educational arm, had last spoken to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg as they put "the finishing touches'' on plans for the Bangalore branch. "Holtzberg had selected the Bangalore emissaries, who were expected to arrive within the next several days.''
What is also interesting is that the Bangalore plans came up precisely at the very time Israeli security agencies had decided to recommend to Chabad that it relocate its institutions in Asian countries from "free-standing homes'' to "office buildings with better security''.
The location of the Chabad House in Mumbai and its lax security reportedly made it an "easy target'' for the terrorists who took it over last week, killing six Israeli and Jewish occupants.
Kirschenbaum said Gavriel definitely had a plan to expand to Bangalore while not being aware of the vulnerability of the Mumbai centre. "He was so well known among the people and the immediate community that he did not feel anything was out of place. It has been utterly shocking for all of us who knew him.''
But an official of the Israeli government, according to the `Jerusalem Post', had just around the time of the attacks, speaking about the Chabad centres, said: "Security is something they are thinking about.''
Chabad's facilities, dotting more than 70 countries around the globe, provide a home away from home for thousands of Israelis travelling abroad taking care of their cultural, religious and economic needs.
Complete Coverage: