Barbara: Saturday
Posted on | November 29, 2008 | No Comments
It’s Saturday night in Jerusalem. For 25 hours, from Friday night until Saturday after sunset, I don’t watch TV or turn on a computer, but tonight I’ve already watched the news on three different channels to glean whatever I can about the horrendous act of savagery in Mumbai, particularly at the Chabad House, the Jewish Center. Chabad is an acronym for Wisdom, Understand and Knowledge, the theme of the Lubavitcher Hassidim, Orthodox Jews who provide free hospitality and religious studies to Jews around the world. They live modest, pious lives and embrace all. They bring up fine children without the support of a steady community. Most home school. What do they have to do with the tensions between Pakistan and India? The answer is nothing. They were targeted because they are an outpost of Judaism. Young couples travel to far-flung sites and spend most of their lives ministering to local and visiting Jews. This is a small country. My son-in-law knows the murdered young Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and so does my house guests. On Israel TV, a young man who was in prison in India told how Rabbi Holtzberg visited him and urged him not to lose hope. We will never know how their two-year old son, covered with blood, managed to get away, saved by the righteous Indian woman who rescued him. No apologists, please. This terrorism is pure evil and we must all condemn it.
