Mumbai victims remembered at Jewish center in Henrico

"You can't shoot a bullet at darkness," Rabbi Yossel Kranz of Chabad of Virginia said last night.

In the face of tragedy, "we will bring light and joy, because we believe that good is greater than evil and that the world is truly a good place," Kranz told more than 100 people gathered at the Henrico County Chabad center to remember the victims of last week's terrorist attacks in Mumbai.

Among the more than 170 killed in India were Rabbi Gavriel "Gaby" Holtzberg, 29, and his wife, Rivkah, 28, who had spent five years providing services for the Jewish community and visitors in a recently renovated five-story Jewish center, Nariman House, the Mumbai headquarters of the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement. Their 2-year-old son was rescued by an employee.

A video shown last night featured images of the Holtzbergs in Mumbai talking about their mission and their lives in India. A young and smiling Rabbi Holtzberg spoke about his plans for the center.

"This tragedy has cut very deeply into our collective hearts," Kranz told the audience.

Julia Roth of Henrico County said she did not know the Holtzbergs but has a good friend from Chicago who visited them many times and stayed with them at Nariman House.

"We were watching and hoping that it would end differently," Roth said. "These weren't just people in the news. I felt very compelled to come and show my support."

Leah Paley of Richmond went to the Internet to find solace and help organize a reading of the Tehillim, the Book of Psalms, in memory of the Mumbai tragedy.

"Make a change in your life for the positive," Kranz said. "Hug your child close; listen a little closer to a friend; smile at the person in the tollboth."

But to fight terrorism, Kranz said, "every peace-loving person has to say absolutely 'no' to hatred and fill the world with kindness."
Contact Linda Dunham at (804) 775-8126 or .