Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Indian Premier Meets With Israeli Mumbai Terror Orphan

(JTA) — Prime Mininster Narendra Modi of India met in Israel with the son of Chabad emissaries who were killed in a 2008 terror attack in Mumbai.

On Wednesday, Modi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Moshe Holtzberg, now 11, who said he missed India. Modi, whose visit to Israel is the first by an Indian head of government, told the boy he was welcome in his country. Netanyahu invited Moshe to come with him on a future trip to India.

The Chabad House attack was one of several attacks on Mumbai sites over four days in November 2008 by a Pakistani Islamist group that left 166 dead and hundreds injured. Moshe’s parents, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, were killed in the attack. Moshe was rescued on the day of the attack by the family’s nanny, Sandra Samuel, who accompanied him to Israel and was present at the Wednesday meeting.

In addition to the Holtzbergs, four other Jewish visitors to the Chabad House were killed in the attack.

Modi’s visit comes 25 years after India and Israel established diplomatic ties.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.