A rabbi looks at the ceiling of a room during the reopening ceremony of Nariman House, which was damaged during the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai.
A Jewish centre in Mumbai reopened yesterday, nearly six years after heavily armed militants stormed the building and killed six people inside during the 2008 attacks on the city.
One of several high-profile targets assaulted by the gunmen, Chabad House in south Mumbai was left bullet-ridden and bereft of its directors Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivky, who were both slain in the siege.
They were among 166 people killed in the three-day onslaught in November 2008, which also targeted luxury hotels, a popular cafe and a train station.
The refurbished five-storey building includes a synagogue, a cafeteria and a function room for the Jewish community. On the top two floors, due to be turned into a museum, damage from the bullets and grenades has been kept as reminders of the tragedy.
In the synagogue, candles mark the spot where Rabbi Holtzberg was shot dead, and pictures of him, his wife and their surviving young child adorn the stairwells.
The rabbi’s father, Nachman Holtzberg, described the opening as a “very special day” for him and his relatives, who were joined by rabbis from across Asia belonging to their orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
“Everybody remembers the very terrifying day when there was the tragedy and everything stopped,” he told reporters.
“This is the day that we can celebrate their lives and the message of light that they spread.”
Chabad House, tucked away down a narrow lane in the bustling area of Colaba market, was established as an open house for visiting Jews and the local community by the Holtzbergs after they arrived in Mumbai in 2003.
