'Everyone Was His Best Friend'

by Justin Cohen - Thursday 4th December 2008


Opening his heart to TJ yesterday, one of the brothers of murdered Gavriel Holtzberg spoke of his family's profound pride at the rabbi's work in India and about how they'd been left heartbroken by the loss of the minister and his wife.

The tragic death of the couple in last week's terrorist outrages in Mumbai provoked a flood of tributes from around the Jewish world and beyond, with tens of thousands attending a joint funeral for the co-directors of the city's Chabad centre on Tuesday in Jerusalem.

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Among them were family members of the couple who flew in from around the globe including New York-based Avraham Holtzberg, who said that there hadn't been a moment in recent days when he didn't think about his younger brother.

"About the way it happened, about the way he was, his picture's in front of my eyes all the time," he said. "Even if I talk to you for 20 hours about Gabi it wouldn't be enough. They had an open house policy for anyone that wanted to come to the house and were always ready for guests. He was kind, everyone who met him once became his closest friend. He was always with a smile."

And speaking from the Afula home of Rivkah's parents where the families are sitting shiva, Avraham said such attributes were also shared by his sister-in-law. "She was his right hand always," he told TJ. "They were the best couple I ever saw in my life, the happiest couple I knew."

Avraham, who was first alerted to the unfolding incident at Nariman House in a phonecall from his sister and spent the ensuing hours praying for his brother's safe rescue, recalled an occasion when Rabbi Holtzberg was invited by a fellow shaliach to a simcha.

"He was the only one who brought his wife. He told the shaliach that if people come together in bad times then surely they should also be together for simchas. Whenever there was an event they went together."

The focal points of Jewish life in Mumbai, the couple welcomed countless locals and tourists without anywhere else to go into their home and rarely sat down for a meal without guests.

Avraham said: "I'm very very proud of him and very jealous that he was able to do so much and I cannot. I'm very happy he was very close to the Lubavitcher Rebbe by doing what he wanted him to do. We're all very proud of him." He insisted though that Gavriel never shouted from the rooftops about his work and preferred to carry out his efforts for others "quietly. He didn't like when people talked about his godliness."

And while he felt that Gavriel deserved the honour of a state funeral addressed by among others Shimon Peres, he suggested that he would have been embarrassed by the level of public attention and focus given to him.

But Avraham expressed hope that the couple's son Moshe, whose anguished expression after being rescued from Nariman House for many captured the horror of the attacks, would grow up to follow in his father's charitable footsteps in helping others. In the meantime, he said he'd be on hand to help the youngster through the coming months and years.

He added: "We hope the moshiach will come and he'll be back with us. Actually it feel like he's still with us, when you see the newspapers and everything, I don't feel like they're talking about one of my brothers.

"People are mourning Gabi all over the world. We have friends and family and a lot of people supporting us but he's really being missed. I feel my heart is broken."

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