PEABODY — A Jewish organization with centers in Swampscott and Peabody is holding services this week to mourn the victims of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, including a young rabbi and his wife.
Chabad of the North Shore will gather at 7:30 p.m. tonight in Swampscott and Saturday at 11 a.m. in Peabody (after regular observances) to remember 29-year-old Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his 28-year-old wife, Rivkah. The couple ran a Chabad-Lubavitch outreach center in Mumbai.
Holtzberg, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, and his Israeli wife were among nine killed in the center and nearly 200 killed last week in the 60-hour rampage by suspected Muslim militants.
The Holtzbergs' toddler son, Moshe, was rescued from the Chabad house by an employee. He had his second birthday on Saturday.
"It has impacted the entire Jewish community and the wider community as well," Rabbi Yossi Lipsker of Swampscott said yesterday of the attacks. "I don't think there is anybody who has not in some way been touched by this."
The Chabad-Lubavitch denomination is a Hasidic faith with 4,000 full-time emissary families who direct more than 3,300 institutions that are dedicated to the welfare of the Jewish people worldwide.
"As a Chabad rabbi, this hits very close to home," Lipsker said. "We are engulfed in a very profound sadness."
"It's deeply painful and emotional," said Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman of Peabody. "This attack was an attack on one of our family members."
Schusterman, 32, met Holtzberg while both were in school and their paths crossed at annual Chabad conferences.
The services will provide local Jews and anyone else who would like to attend the chance to come together in sadness, prayer and solidarity, Lipsker said. Tonight's service will take place at 44 Burrill St. in Swampscott, Saturday's at 83 Pine St. Unit E in Peabody. Also in Peabody, a remembrance will be held after Hebrew School at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Chabad community has to find comfort in its rebuilding, Schusterman said. People should strive to combat the darkness of the tragedy by performing an act of goodness and kindness "to make the world a bit brighter," he said.
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