Thousands Mourn Fallen Victims in Central Israel Ceremony

Thousands of people are reciting Psalms in Kfar Chabad, Israel, where the memorial service has just begun for Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, the directors of the Chabad-Lubavitch center in Mumbai, Israel, attacked by terrorists last week.

Their burial will take place afterwards at Jerusalem's Mount of Olives cemetery.

A delegation of Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries from around the world flew in for the ceremony.

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Rabbi Naftali Lipskar, from the Chabad-Lubavitch Youth Organization, mourned the victims as members of the extended family of more than 8,000 Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries across the globe. He pledged that the gutted Chabad House would be rebuilt, and the Holtzbergs' holy work in India would continue.

"We will continue in the way of the Rebbe," Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, said Lipskar, "in the faith of Hashem and the trust in the future and final redemption."

In his tearful remarks, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice-chairman of Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch, cried out to G-d and asked, "Why?!"

"These were such fine people," screamed Kotlarsky, who knew the couple well and just two days before terrorists entered the Chabad House was working with them to send new emissaries to India.

"People who never said no to anyone," he continued in a speech that switched frequently between Hebrew and English. "There was nothing they couldn't do. Why couldn't you give them more time?"

Thousands of people attended the tearful service. (Photo: Tamar Runyan)

Turning to the larger world of Chabad-Lubavitch, Kotlarsky encouraged the emissaries to redouble their efforts to bring added goodness to the world. Then, directing his words to the Holtzbergs' orphaned two-year-old son, Moshe, he promised that Chabad-Lubavitch families everywhere would treat him as their own son.

"You are an emissary of the Rebbe," Kotlarsky said to Moshe. "You will remain an emissary forever."

Israeli President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and opposition leader MK Binyamin Netanyahu represented the Israeli government at the Kfar Chabad ceremony.

Click here to view the Holtzbergs' funeral services.

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