A view of the reopened Nariman Chabad House which was attacked during the 26/11 terror attacks, in Mumbai on Tuesday. PTI
Rising from the ashes nearly six years after terrorists attacked the Chabad house, a Jewish outreach centre in Colaba on November 26, 2008, the renovated Chabad house on Tuesday saw Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky welcoming hundreds of Jewish guests and rabbis who had come from across the globe to attend its reopening.
Rabbi Kozlovsky is the successor of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, who was slain by terrorists in the 2008 attack along with his pregnant wife Rivka. Their infant son Moshe, however, miraculously survived.
The rabbi (aged around 28) will live here with his wife Chaya and two children. He has been actively participating in the House’s activities for the past one and a half year and has also learnt a few Hindi words like Meherbani (a way to say thank you).
The Chabad house now has a highly advanced security apparatus, including CCTV surveillance. A restaurant has also been built inside to serve Jewish food. Additionally, two floors and the rooftop will be turned into a museum and a memorial.
Nick Appelbaum of Ralph Appelbaum Associates (RAA) from New York, which will work on the museum, said, “We plan to build a museum on the fourth floor. The deceased couple used to live on the fifth floor so we intend to recreate it they way it was. The rooftop will be turned into a memorial for the people who were killed. The project costs around 25 million dollars and is expected to take a year to complete.” Speaking to the The Asian Age, Holtzberg’s father Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg said, “Today’s reopening ceremony is an affirmation of life and hope, which is completely the opposite of the death and destruction that was the aim of terrorists.”