Holtzberg relatives share inspirational message

By Malka Eisenberg

Issue of May 29, 2009 / 6 Sivan 5769

A somber, subdued group of over a hundred men and women gathered at The White Shul this week to hear Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg speak as part of the Far Rockaway-Five Towns Community Wide Rosh Chodesh Lecture Series for Women. He is the father of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg a”h, the Chabad shliach murdered in the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India last November. He spoke about "Unity among Klal Yisroel" to an audience that sat silently and strained to catch his words.

Rabbi Holtzberg noted that immediately prior to receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai the Torah states "Vayichan shom Yisrael neged hahar," that the nation of Israel encamped as one entity near the mountain. He pointed out that they displayed "simple ahavas yisrael," love of Israel, noting that we are all like family, sisters and brothers. He invoked the memories of his son and daughter-in-law, Rivkah, that they were "kedoshim," holy.

"They just wanted to help other people," he said quietly." "They tried to help people who came to Mumbai." He recalled being at the Chabad house a year ago on Pesach; describing how each day, night and day, it was like a yeshiva, with 60 to 70 people eating and visiting there. He explained how Rabbi Gavriel and Rebbitzen Rivkah Holtzberg worked tirelessly for others, radiating ahavas Yisrael. He recounted how his son made sandwiches and went to Delhi and other places, to different hospitals to visit with people there, spreading Kiddush Hashem wherever they went.

"My son was mkadesh shem shamayim (sanctified G-d's name) the likes of which weren't seen since matan Torah (the giving of the Torah on Sinai)," he stressed. "We say in the morning regarding remembering akaydat Yitzchak (the binding of Isaac), here there were six korbanot (sacrifices) on the mizbayach (altar). It's been six months and Moshiach is still not here, and we know that if the Bais Hamikdash (the Temple) is not rebuilt in our time it is as if it was destroyed in our time."

His goal, Rabbi Holtzberg said, is to collect money to rebuild the Chabad House in Mumbai. He and his wife, Fraida, are traveling from place to place for that purpose. He ended by wishing everyone health, parnassa (livlihood) and "everything they need."

This was Rabbi Holtzberg's second appearance in this area since his son and daughter-in-law were murdered. He spoke at a memorial in West Hempstead shortly after the terror attack, in which his grandson, Moishe's, live was saved by a nanny.

Mrs. Fraida Holzberg privately discussed the speaking tour she and her husband began in Australia and continued in Queens and New Jersey. Currently in Mumbai there is an apartment with a shaliach, just young men, but they need a building to send shluchim, a married couple, she stressed.

"It's heartbreaking and heartwarming to see them pick up and carry on," said one woman who attended. "It's inspiring and keeps it alive." A man who said he was familiar with the Mumbai Chabad House noted the spreading of Torah there and the "extraordinary diversity" of the people coming to the Chabad House, from non-Jews to the very Orthodox and how all were welcomed warmly.

For more information go to chabadindia.org. Donations may be sent to Chabad Mumbai Relief Fund at 770 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY  11213