In memory of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg

By Victor Lee

I spent the summer of 2007 in Mumbai, it was a tough time in my life and things were not working out as I had hoped they would, thus I decided that an excursion in unfamiliar territory would be of benefit to me. Arriving in Mumbai it was immediately apparent that I was going to be far outside of my comfort zone. The chaos, the noise, the smells and the poverty were so shocking that I didn’t know if I was going to be able to last a weekend there, never mind two months. I arrived on a Friday morning and as usual my father had already contacted the local Chabad House on my behalf.

What was only a relatively short distance ended up taking almost an hour to locate in the overwhelming humidity of the Indian rainy season. Hormusji Street, where Nariman House is located, is off of a main road but can barely be classified as a street, a little dark alley is a better description. When I eventually found my way down this alley I was met by a group of Indian people who were sat in a circle on the floor next to a bleating goat, intently staring at me as I walked past. I have never felt in such an alien environment as I did at that moment. Two minutes later I was sitting in a room of forty people for a traditional Shabbat dinner just as if I was at home in London.

I went back to the Chabad House for Shabbat every week, knowing that I was always guaranteed a kosher meal, conversation with likeminded individuals and a comfortable atmosphere that would immediately put me at ease. Shabbat at the Chabad House in Mumbai reminded me who I was and where I came from. Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg achieved an immense task, in the few years that they were in Mumbai they managed to build a functioning, spiritual, communal and familial home that was open to all Jewish people in Mumbai. I will be forever indebted to Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg for helping me to get to know myself.

The recognizable circumstances of their hospitality showed me how fortunate I was to be a Jew, with a solid support system of the most welcoming hosts even in the most hostile of locations. Unfortunately I never took the opportunity to tell the Holtzbergs of the influence that they had had on me but I hold onto the hope that they knew the positive role that they played in the lives of many Israeli, American, European and local Jews.

The word Chabad is an acronym for the Hebrew words of Wisdom- חָכְמָה, Understanding- בִּינָה and Knowledge- דַּעַת. Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg truly embodied all of these characteristics and regularly put them into practice. The wisdom of such a young man to be able to move to a place like Mumbai and be able to install a thriving Chabad House, the understanding that he showed to the hugely varied and often unconventional people that frequented the Chabad House, as well as his knowledge in being able to provide all of the services required of a functioning Jewish community, were all quite extraordinary. It is a year and a half since I was first told that the hundreds of kosher chickens which were eaten at the Chabad House each week were personally shechted by him, but it still amazes me every time I think about it. All Chabad emissaries should aspire to be able to reach the heights that this young Rabbi accomplished. It gives me great solace to remember his pleasure when I told him how proud I was to be associated with the Chabad movement.

I did not have as much opportunity to get to know Rivka, but I know how she thrived upon having the opportunity to entertain and chat with all those who came, and was particularly adept at making all girls feel welcomed. She evidently missed her family greatly but treated anyone who entered the Chabad House as warmly as if they were kin. At the time I did not know the difficulties that she must have gone through with her first two children suffering from a terminal blood disease, but it would have been near impossible to know from the smile which constantly permeated her face. The pure joy that she showed while talking about Moshe as he crawled around, makes me think that his miraculous survival would have comforted her in her last moments (which hopefully she did indeed know of). Poor Moshe’le will have a very tough time growing up without his parents but he will be raised by the entire Chabad community and will be constantly reminded how amazing his parents were.

One Shabbat while I was there was the week of Parshat Balak, this has played on my mind continuously as I think how pertinent the story is to this situation. The narrative explains how the Moabite King Balak, considering himself to be in a position of weakness relative to the Israelites, attempted to enlist the help of the gentile prophet Bilam in order to curse the Jewish people into extinction. Bilam was seduced into agreeing to do so by the promise of immense wealth and influence, but each time he attempted to curse the Jewish people he would inadvertently bless them instead. I draw many parallels between this underhanded attempt at annihilation and the actions of the terrorists in Mumbai last week. Rather than waging a legitimate, confrontational, military war against the Israelite tribe, they attempted to covertly act to slay innocent, defenceless people that had no prior knowledge of an impending threat.

The naming of the Torah portion after a sworn external enemy of the Jewish people is certainly a peculiar choice and the only such instance in the Torah (there is one other occasion in which it is named after a Jewish enemy). As Gavriel explained at the Shabbat table, even this attempt to hurt the Jewish people resulted in the Jews emerging stronger and more united than beforehand. Despite Balak’s efforts, his grand-daughter Ruth came to see the virtues of the Jewish way and converted to Judaism, her descendant becoming King David. I hope and pray that the parallels of this story will continue and that the descendants of those who have committed this heinous crime will come to recognise the Jewish people for the honourable people that we are, so that Peace can one day be absolutely achieved. 

One of the exaltations with which Bilam unintentionally blessed the Jewish people is recited daily by millions of Jews worldwide as the first line of the prayer ‘Ma Tovu’, it reads “How good are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel!”. I cannot think of a more appropriate prayer to pay tribute to the work of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg. How good was their Jewish dwelling? I experienced only one small part of what took place at the Chabad House of Mumbai house yet I still cannot begin to describe how good it was.

The Holtzbergs were amazingly selfless people, who gave up all of the simplicities of life in the western world in order to offer an oasis of Jewish life in a harsh city of chaos. Despite the fact that I only knew them for a relatively short period of time, I will be eternally grateful for having had the fortune of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg playing a role in my life.

May their memory be a blessing.