Shabbat at the Holtzbergs

A Woodmere student remembers weekends in Mumbai

By Mayer Fertig

Issue of Dec. 5, 2008 / 8 Kislev 5769

Medical student Elisheva Levine of Woodmere spent a month in Mumbai this past summer, and three Shabbatot at the Chabad House hosted by Rabbi Gavriel and Rebbetzin Rikvah Holtzberg, a”h.

“You didn’t feel like you were a guest, but a friend, and that’s how they made everyone feel,” Levine said in an emotional interview Monday night. “I don’t think anyone that ever went there would ever forget them. They were just people that you remember.”

Levine and five friends took classes and performed research in psychology in Mumbai as part of a summer program sponsored by Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, where she is a second year student.

“Shabbat at a Chabad house saved us,” she recalled. “Mumbai is very crowded, very busy, just a crazy city. To be able to go the Chabad House for Shabbat –– Rabbi Holtzberg and Rivki were just so sweet, they were so welcoming –– to be able to see them each week was definitely something that we were looking forward to.”

The Holtzbergs treated everyone equally, said Levine, observant Jews and Israeli backpackers, too. Rebbetzin Holtzberg cooked all the food and made sure everyone had a place to stay; Rabbi Holtzberg said divrei Torah and sang zemiros during the meals, sometimes with his son, Moshe, on his lap.

“Rabbi Holtzberg would sing this one zemer and Moshe knew it really well and would sing along with him. It was very cute and sweet and very endearing,” Levine said.

Levine, who graduated from HAFTR elementary and high schools, and Stern College for Women, also studied at Michlelet Mevaseret Yerushalayim for a year before college. The group she was with included young women from Manhattan and Teaneck, NJ.

One quiet Friday evening –– her first at the Chabad House –– the medical students and the rebbetzin talked quietly.

“She was on the couch and we were on chairs just hanging out before the meal started. Moshe was there and you just felt like you had a relationship with them,” Levine reounted.

Later the Holtzbergs and the students “sat for hours talking about Jewish philosophy, and you don’t really get that –– people being willing to have such deep conversations.”

You could talk to them about anything, she recalled.

On the future doctors’ third and final Shabbat in Mumbai, a diamond conference in town made the Chabad House busy and crowded. The Holtzbergs surprised the young women with their hospitality by inviting them to stay in their son’s room.

“It was amazing that they were so open,” she said.

Apart from their professional lives, the Holtzbergs were devoted parents, as well, Levine recalled, pausing to regain control of her emotions.

“In addition to their work of creating a Jewish experience for anyone who wanted one, they had their son, Moshe. They lived there also –– it wasn’t just for other people –– and you got to see them interact with Moshe.”

“It was so cute and so loving. Just seeing how they interacted with him on Shabbos was so cute.”

“You felt that they were totally committed to what they were doing and just wanted to make Shabbat special and bring the Jewish people together,” she said. “They were really living their message and they were inspiring to see and it’s such a tragedy that this happened.”