Mumbai One Year Later

A year ago today 164 civilians were killed and 308 people were injured in a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. These attacks were carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamic terrorist organization based in Pakistan which has common cause with al Qaeda.

There were nearly a dozen attacks carried out simultaneously. Most of the casualties occurred at the Taj Mahal Hotel, the Oberoi Trident Hotel and at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus Railroad Station.

But it also must never be forgotten that Lashkar-e-Taiba also targetted some not so public places including Nariman House, an outreach center organized by the Chabad Lubavitch movement. The terrorists murdered Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka Holtzberg were murdered along with four others. "The Prophet said: the Jews will hide behind the rock and tree, and the rock and tree will say: oh servant of Allah, oh Muslim this is a Jew behind me, come and kill him!"

Sandra Samuel, the Holtzberg's nanny, found two-year old Moshe Holtzberg crying over the body of his mother and fled to safety. Samuel and young Moshe now reside in Israel with his maternal grandparents. While we must never forget the evil of terrorism we must also never forget the goodness that rises in the face of evil.