India’s Jewish Terror Victims Arrive in Israel

A gray-coated Israel Air Force jet carrying six Jewish victims of the India terror attacks landed at Ben Gurion International Airport just before midnight Monday, ferrying its precious cargo on the last leg of its journey before expected burials on Tuesday. All perished after suspected Islamist terrorists took over the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Mumbai last week.

On board the somber flight were the bodies of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the directors of the Chabad House; kosher supervisors Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum, a U.S.-born scion of the Volover Chasidic dynasty who lived in Israel, and Rabbi Bentzion Kruman, a native of Bat Yam, Israel; Israeli grandmother Yocheved Orpaz; and Mexican citizen Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich, who died before getting to immigrate to Israel.

Among the passengers, who included a special forensics and diplomatic team sent by Israel to help release the deceased from Indian custody, were Rivka Holtzberg’s parents, Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg of Afula, Israel; their now-orphaned two-year-old grandson Moshe Holtzberg; and Sandra Samuel, the Indian nanny who heroically risked her own life to carry the boy from the Chabad House to safety in the middle of the crisis.

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Following a brief service attended by Israeli government officials, vans belonging to the ZAKA volunteer search and rescue organization took the victims to undisclosed locations. Each family made their own arrangements for funeral services. After a 1 p.m. memorial service in Kfar Chabad on Tuesday, the Holtzbergs will be buried at Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives cemetery.