Child whose parents were killed in 2008 Mumbai attack to return to Chabad House
Moshe Holzberg was 3 when his mother and father were shot dead by Islamist Pakistani terrorists; he will revisit home with PM Netanyahu during state trip to India
Indian Prime Minister, left, embracing 11-year-old Moshe Holtzberg, whose Chabad emissary parents were killed in a 2008 terror attack in Mumbai, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on left in Israel, July 5, 2017 . (Haim Zach/Israeli Government Press Office)
The son of the Chabad emissaries killed in a 2008 terror attack in Mumbai will join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a trip to India later this month.
Moshe Holtzberg, 11, was three years old when his parents Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg were killed by terrorist gunmen at the Nariman Chabad House in Mumbai.
Four other Jewish visitors to the Chabad House were killed in the incident, which came as part of several attacks on Mumbai sites over four days by an Islamist Pakistani group. In total, 166 people were killed and hundreds injured.
Moshe was rescued on the day of the attack by the family’s nanny, Sandra Samuel, who ran out of the Chabad House carrying him. She later accompanied him to Israel, where he now lives with his grandparents.
Moshe Holtzberg seen on his first day at first grade in the city of Migdal Haemek on August 26,2012. Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, who was five months pregnant, were killed during the November 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistani Islamic terrorists. Their two-year-old son Moshe survived the attack after being rescued by his Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel. (Avishag Shaar Yashuv/Flash90)
In July, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel to mark 25 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries; it was the first visit to Israel by an Indian head of government. During the visit, Modi met with Moshe Holtzberg, who said that he missed India. Modi invited the boy to return whenever he wants. The prime misniter offered to bring Moshe with him on his next trip to India.
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Netanyahu will visit India on January 14 for an official state visit. Moshe Holtzberg is scheduled to accompany him, according to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg, Moshe’s grandfather, told The Hindu newspaper in an interview in July when Modi visited Israel that it was his dream, and he believes Moshe’s dream too, that when he grows up, the boy will serve in India in the same Chabad House in which his parents were killed.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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