Eerie silence cloaks untouched Nariman House

MUMBAI: A bullet went right through the arc and into the scroll of the holy Torah that had been read by Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg just hours before he was killed by the two terrorists Babar Imran and Nasir — who laid siege to Nariman House from November 26 to 28.
"It was by pure coincidence, a tragic one, that Rabbi Holtzberg had read this particular scroll that spoke about the death of the sons of Aharon from the Holy Book,'' recalls Rabbi Avraham Berkowitz, director of Chabad House, as he opens the bullet-riddled shelf, which once housed the Torah.
As the afternoon light filters into the second floor of Nariman House, it reveals the horrific vestiges of the siege. Bullet-ridden walls, cracked furniture, broken windows, gaping holes from rocket- propelled grenades on the outer walls, blood-stained patches on broken marble floors. Nothing has been moved.
Even Baby Moshe's room has been left untouched with his toys and building blocks left in a disarray on the bed, waiting to be put away. "We have plans to rebuild the Chabad Centre, but nothing has been finalised,'' says Berkowitz. According to the charge sheet, the Nariman House attackers inflicted over Rs 1 crore of damages to property during the siege. Each floor of the building has a gory story to tell. Each killing, as Rabbi Abraham Cooper says, "was in the name of religion, which no modern day community leader can ignore.''
Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, who were among the nine victims who died in the attack, stayed at the top floor of the five-storey building. "The fact that they had employed a Christian maid Sandra Samuels and a Muslim boy Zakir Hussein shows that people from all communities were welcome here,'' says Orna Sagiv, Israel's Consul General in Mumbai.
According to Berkowitz, over 500 parents in the Jewish community have named their newborn children Gavriel and Rivka to honour their memory. That is one the reasons why the Chabad Trust is not selecting a new rabbi in a hurry. "It is nearly impossible to replace the loss,'' says Berkowitz. "I am overwhelmed by the support we received from the government and from the citizens. As Judaism says, we should always remember the tragedy lest we forget.''
The members of the orthodox Jewish Chabad India Trust have moved out of Nariman House and are residing in an unknown location due to security reasons.