Local rabbis mourning after India attacks

RABBI ABRAHAM SHEMTOV was preparing for a trip he wished he didn't have to take.

"Everybody expresses the shock," he said by phone yesterday. "The reaction has been one of dismay and horrific pain at what happened, but a strong result [has been] not only to continue but to go even further."

Shemtov, chairman of the executive committee of the worldwide Chabad-Lubavitch movement, was en route from his Philadelphia home to the group's headquarters in Brooklyn, where he expected to make plans to depart today for Israel.

He and others in their large Hasidic Jewish sect expressed shock that they now must bury two of their own, reportedly killed by terrorists during a three-day siege in Mumbai, India: Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg, 29, director of the Chabad House in Mumbai, and his wife, Rivkah, 28.

In addition, the Associated Press reported yesterday that Rabbi Bentzion Chroman, Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum and Israeli tourist Yocheved Orpaz also were killed in the Chabad center.

Shemtov said he planned to leave for Israel by noon today to attend the Holtzbergs' funerals, tentatively scheduled for tomorrow morning.

Shemtov's son, Rabbi Yudy Shemtov, director of Bucks County Chabad-Lubavitch in Newtown, said "red tape" involving moving the bodies from India to Israel could delay the funerals.

"It's a question of getting the bodies over to Israel," said Yudy Shemtov, 42. "Everybody was ready to hop on a plane last night [to go to the funeral]. They're not postponing it to wait for a bigger crowd, it just happens they can't get the bodies there logistically."

He said that his father would attend to fill a leadership role, and that he also might travel to Israel if the funeral does not conflict with a Chabad-affiliated class he is leading today.

"I feel as a merit of those who were taken [I should stay for the class]," he said, adding that although he did not personally know the victims, "they would want me to continue the class."

Both Shemtov and his father said a strong response has been expressed throughout the local Chabad community.

Abraham Shemtov said that from each of the nearly 20 Chabad pulpits in the Philadelphia area, Chabad leaders had expressed the organization's position on the situation during Jewish sabbath services on Saturday.

"[What happened] is reflective of the problems facing civilization as a whole and, in a microcosm form, this particular [attack on a] bastion of kindness [the Mumbai Chabad House] is indicative of the evils of society," Abraham Shemtov said yesterday. "And we therefore call on everyone to draw conclusions which will have helped to face the challenge."

He said he was confident that Chabad would move forward as a strengthened community.

Yudy Shemtov said that Saturday's services at Chabad locations were dedicated to the Mumbai victims, and that he was inspired by the levels of attendance and support.

"At this point, people are just really trying to digest what's going on and what's the best way to move forward," he said. "This is a global issue [more] than just the impact on Chabad, and we don't just go on in a time like this. We fight back, and the way you fight back darkness is with greater intensity of life."

The Chabad organization is discussing how to respond to the deadly attack, not only against its people but against ideals and civilization, the younger Shemtov said. He said Chabad would move forward combating "darkness with light."

"They may have taken away the bodies," Yudy Shemtov said. "But they didn't take away our spirit and our commitment to do what is right, what the world needs, and we hope to be there to respond and guide people through this." *