1. Gavriel Holtzberg was a religious leader and community builder for the local Jewish Indian community, and led the Friday-night Shabbat services at the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue.
14 Facts About Gavriel Holtzberg
1. 2.
Gavriel Holtzberg was born in Israel to Nachman and Freida Gavriel Holtzberg.
3.
Gavriel Holtzberg traveled to Jerusalem for an international Talmudic competition, where he came in second.
4.
Gavriel Holtzberg studied at yeshivas in New York and Argentina, and as a rabbinical student served communities in Thailand and China under the Summer Rabbinical Visitation Program run by Merkos L'Inyonei Chinuch, the educational arm of Chabad-Lubavitch.
5.
Gavriel Holtzberg spent time as a student in the Chabad house in Bangkok, and helped open a Chabad house in south Thailand.
6.
Gavriel Holtzberg's future rebbetzin, Rivka Holtzberg nee Rosenberg, was born in Israel to Rabbi Shimon and Yehudit Rosenberg, and was raised in Afula.
7.
Gavriel Holtzberg studied at a Bais Rivka seminary in Kfar Chabad, Israel.
8.
Gavriel Holtzberg's uncle was Rabbi Yitzchak Dovid Grossman, Chief Rabbi of Migdal Ha'Emek, Israel.
9.
Gavriel Holtzberg died of this disease at the age of 3.
10.
Gavriel Holtzberg died at the age of 4 in December 2008, one month after his parents' murder.
11.
Gavriel Holtzberg ran the synagogue in addition to him and his wife being directors of the Mumbai Chabad headquarters.
12.
Gavriel Holtzberg installed a kosher kitchen and a mikvah at Nariman House, and taught the Torah, offered drug prevention services and ran a hostel there.
13.
Gavriel Holtzberg was a religious leader for that community, leading Friday night services at the Knesset Eliyahoo synagogue, performing marriages for them, acting as the shochet and supplying the community with kosher meat, answering halakhic principles for them, such as what is to be done in the rites and customs of Judaism, as well as being a trained Mohel.
14.
Gavriel Holtzberg then ran upstairs to find the Holtzbergs shot and lying on the ground with their son crying over them, so she picked him up and ran to the exit.