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Jewish Group Says Rabbi, Wife Dead in Mumbai

29 November 2008

A Jewish group says a rabbi and his wife are among the dead at a Jewish center that was seized by gunmen in Mumbai.

The Chabad-Lubavitch movement in New York said Friday that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, were killed in the movement's Mumbai headquarters, called Chabad House. 

A female cook employed by the center escaped from the building on Thursday with the rabbi's two-year-old son.

Indian security forces stormed the center on Friday, killing two terrorists and recovering the bodies of at least five hostages.  They then swept the building floor-to-floor, making sure it was clear.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said the Chabad House was attacked for being Jewish.  She said "our world is under attack" and that there are extremist Muslim elements who do not accept "our values or existence."

A Chabad spokesman in New York, Rabbi Zalman Shmotkin, said the men who attacked the Jewish center had initially seized a police vehicle, which he says enabled them to approach the building.

The Jewish center contains a synagogue and kosher cafeteria primarily used by Israelis and other Jewish visitors to Mumbai.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
 


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