Father of Slain Emissary Addresses Israeli Memorial Ceremony

Speaking in front of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyau, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a crowd of grieving families at a Jerusalem Memorial Day ceremony for fallen soldiers and victims of terror, Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg - father of slain Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rivka Holtzberg - said that "with every day that passes, the pain grows stronger," but that an equally growing faith in G-d "gives us the strength to cope with all the hardship."

In his televised speech, Rosenberg, whose daughter and son-in-law, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, were among the six Jews who perished at their Mumbai, India, Chabad House last November, also referred to his orphaned grandson Moshe as a miracle "whom all of Israel has embraced."

Speaking after Rosenberg, Netanyahu, who lost his brother Yonatan in a 1976 commando operation to free Israeli hostages at the Entebbe airport in Uganda, told the assembled that he knew the pain of grief.

"As a member of a bereaved family, I recognize and know your pain," said the prime minister. "The entire nation stands with you today ... and with you, remembers and commemorates the sons and daughters, the fathers and mothers, the brothers and sisters who are gone." ...