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| India-Pakistan |
| Nanny credited with tot's daring rescue |
| 2008-12-03 |
| A 2-year-old survived an attack that took the lives of his parents, thanks to a quick-thinking nanny who grabbed the boy and dashed past gunmen to safety. Sandra Samuel and Moshe Holtzberg were the only ones to survive a siege on Mumbai's Chabad House last week. It could be called one the miracles of last week's tragedy in Mumbai, India. Two-year-old Moshe Holtzberg and nanny Sandra Samuel were the only ones to make it out of the Chabad House alive after gunmen stormed the house, killing Chabad House directors Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, and four others. Rivka Holtzberg, who arrived in Mumbai with her husband five years ago to serve the city's small Jewish community, was pregnant, her father said at her funeral Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported. Those at the Chabad House were among 179 people killed last week when gunmen targeted several sites across Mumbai, including two luxury hotels, a train station and a hospital. As the siege at the Chabad House began, Samuel heard the commotion, locked the doors and hid in a room. "She heard Mrs. Holtzberg -- Rivka -- screaming, 'Sandra, Sandra, help, Sandra,' " said Robert Katz, executive vice president of the Israeli organization Migdal Ohr. The gunmen reportedly went door-to-door, searching for targets. Samuel unlocked her door and dared the gunmen to stop her, according to Katz. She then ran upstairs to find the Holtzbergs shot dead, lying on the ground with their son crying over them. "She literally picked him up and made a dash for the exits, almost daring the terrorists to shoot a woman carrying a baby," Katz said. The two arrived in Israel early Tuesday on a flight with the boy's maternal grandparents and the bodies of his parents. "Moshe, you have no living mother and father. ... Today you become the child of all Israel," Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, a Chabad official from New York, said in a short ceremony at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv. The return of the bodies was delayed until authorities removed hand grenades from the bodies, left there by the attackers, Katz said. Leading the efforts to provide Moshe with shelter and support is his great-uncle, Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, founder of Migdal Ohr, Israel's largest youth village. It provides more than 6,500 "orphaned, impoverished, underprivileged and new immigrant children" with homes and education. "Who could have ever predicted that someone who has dedicated his whole life to caring for orphans and children at risk would now be faced with having to care for his own grand-nephew and would need to help bury his own niece and nephew?" Katz asked. Grossman also secured a one-year visa in Israel for Samuel to assist in caring for the boy as he transitions to his new life, Katz said in a statement on Migdal Ohr's Web site. The Holtzbergs were laid to rest Tuesday in a service that drew thousands of mourners and emissaries from the ultra-Orthodox Chabad movement to the Israeli village of Kfar Chabad, a village of 900 families just outside Tel Aviv. Including the Holtzbergs, four Israelis, an American Jew and a Mexican woman were gunned down last week in the attack on Mumbai's Chabad House, a Jewish center where the couple ministered to people from the community and welcomed them to pray, eat kosher food or celebrate Jewish holidays. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #6 "Moshe, you have no living mother and father. ... Today you become the child of all Israel," Damn. My eyes are stinging after reading that. NEVER FORGIVE. NEVER FORGET. PAY THEM BACK A THOUSAND FOLD AND STILL DON'T CONSIDER IT ENOUGH. |
| Posted by: Jolutch Mussolini7800 2008-12-03 23:52 |
| #5 She has been declared a "righteous gentile" and may live freely in Israel |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-12-03 18:57 |
| #4 According to reports they beat the 2-year old. More likely they thought the baby dead after beating him (perhaps in front of his parents). And f-king CNN whitewashes the TERRORISTS by simply calling them 'gunmen'. Only the quote calls them 'terrorists'. The baby was covered in blood, crying, and trying to wake up his dead parents. And yes, the nanny is a hero in this. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-12-03 16:16 |
| #3 These BTW would be the first Jews that these Pakistanis Punjabis would have seen in their entire life. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-12-03 14:09 |
| #2 The mother was six months pregnant. The little boy's back was bruised. It seems he was beaten by the terrorists. The parents' bodies were booby trapped with grenades. The child was sitting in his parent's blood. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-12-03 14:08 |
| #1 I would be the last one to defend the terrrists,but I would like to know if there is any evidence that they spared little Moshe's life? |
| Posted by: Craque Peacock6244 2008-12-03 11:46 |