Picture: Moshe Holtzberg's First Day Of School

The only surviving child of Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, the Chabad shluchim killed in the Mumbai terror attacks in November 2008, went to school today for the first time. He lives in Migdal Haemek, Israel with his grandparents.

Comments

[ultra haredi lite]

Whose in control of the Mumbai Chabad House now? Was it ever settled?

[Eli, what me messiah?]

I hope you grow up to have a wonderful life, Moshe, and that nothing but goodness comes to you.

[ah-pee-chorus]

@Posted by: Eli, what me messiah?

i second that.

and i hope you dont grow up to be a pawn in chabads PR machine.

[dh]

"...only surviving child"? I thought he had an older brother who resides in some kind of institution.

[Rabbi David Wolpe Shlita]

One would hope that after the terrible event, no doubt brought on by the inability of Chabad to get along with non-Jews, the boy would be given a proper secular education in which, without the influence of those who pervert the Bible, he'd gain a true understanding of what it means to be a Jew. As we protest the ancient non-biblical based ritual of circumcision, we must protest this brainwashing of an innocent boy. That is the halacha.

[mimi]

dh, evidently according to Wikipedia two siblings had Tay Sachs and have passed of natural causes. In other news, people are still getting Tay Sachs, WTF-get your testing done, people!

Good luck to the kiddo, and many happy years.

[Avi]

Sadly he will one day be an adult chabadnick, no longer cute and therefore our enemy. Sigh.

[dh]

thanks mimi

[Rabbi David Wolpe Shlita]

Avi: Indeed. Matisyahu has become much more cute since he shed his chabad lifestyle.

[TO "DOVID WOLPE"]

Would you also blame the Holocaust on our "inability to get along with non-Jews" ?? Whatever your compalints may be against Orthodox Judaism (and some may be valid) this innocent kid is an orphan & his parents died a horrible violent early death. You are vile.

[David]

I hope he gets an appropriate secular education in order to give him an understanding of thw world and an ability to work as well as non-brainwashing religious education.

[Rabbi David Wolpe Shlita]

In fact, the only proper way for him to learn to live by our biblical dictates would be for him to attend a madrassa. This way he can learn to love Muslims...v'ahavta l'ray'acha kamocha. That is the halacha.

[Rabbi David Wolpe Shlita]

To answer your question, yes, the Holocaust happened as a result of Jews not being able to get along with non-Jews. As much as the secular German Jewish community tried to repair that rift, by giving up all rituals in an effort to blend with their German neighbors and even intermarrying with them, it is the fault of those who kept keeping ancient rituals that are no longer needed, like kashrut and circumcision, that upset our righteous gentile hosts. Those Jews who kept the rituals were violating biblical precepts.

[Rabbi David Wolpe Shlita]

David,
You are correct. Look at the greatest leaders of the past century; people who were not brainwashed. Mao and Stalin built empires! Hitler built the Autobahn and got the archaic German train system to run on time. They are the true righteous gentiles.

[David]

David,
You are correct. Look at the greatest leaders of the past century; people who were not brainwashed. Mao and Stalin built empires! Hitler built the Autobahn and got the archaic German train system to run on time. They are the true righteous gentiles.

Posted by: Rabbi David Wolpe Shlita | August 27, 2012 at 04:35 PM

I assume you are being sarcastic so exactly what IS your opposition to a) secular education so that one can earn a living as mandated by Torah and b) why your support of brainwashing (to the extent that Charedim are utterly incapable of independent thought or action).

[Block]

Shmarya, can you ban this guy? He's clearly a troll, but even more offensive and less educated than, say, Deremes. His comments are vile, reek of no education and deep psychological wounds, and babble. I can't even begin to explain to you how wrong you are about the Holocaust.

It's simply historical fact that the Hitler convinced a nation of more than 60 million people that the Jews were the source of all their troubles, and not an economy wrecked by World War I, or a shi#%y leader.

In fact, the overwhelming majority of Jews were strongly pro-German, had fought in the war, and some even served in government official-type capacities.

They loved Germany so much, they refused to leave the country when Hitler started deporting them, and ended up getting gassed as a result. A few smart ones left, but not enough.

Shame on you. Rabbi David Wolpe is a well-respected conservative rabbi. Please do not slander his name and make people think he is behind your idiotic posts.

[Eli, what me messiah?]

Shmarya, I second the request to ban this loon. He's a haredi troll with an offensive grade school sense of humor that has no business here. Only a creepy haredi troll would try to transform a post about this little boy, who survived such a heinous tragedy, into a discussion about hate. He's just a vile, distasteful worm, not someone with a brain.

[SkepticalYid]

Moshe looks like a sweet child. I hope he's able to heal and overcome the tremendous loss he suffered.

[TO "DOVID WOLPE"]

Devastatingly frightening new (non-fiction) book by Tuvia Tenenbom titled "I Sleep in Hitler's Room." Tenenbom passes as aryan & tours Germany, exposing the deeply profound` current anti-semitism among the new/young generation of Germans. We Jews, no matter what our beliefs, really ought to try to stop hating each other - there's a big world out there that's doing it for us as we bash.

[Drive-by Dan]

I look at the picture and go "awww"!
What a cute picture of a tiny child going forth to shul with his large, Santa-like granpa in the background.

This, then, is the dichotomy of culture: to have lovable children, all innocent and bright-eyed, begin their lives in a culture that is determined to teach them falsehoods and narrow points of view so that when these cute kids grow up, we can deplore their adult bigotry they are doomed to be infected with according to their environment.

How can a granpa with such a nice beard ever teach such nikulturny lies to his grandchildren? Yet it happens.

Maybe this child will somehow avoid being a bigot despite all his culture has to teach him.

After all, it is the exact same sort of bigotry that resulted in the deaths of his parents, so one would like him to avoid such a thing for himself.

I wish nothing but the best for all children, but they are defenseless against the insane bigotries of the adults around them.
Some grow to realize this. Others do not.

There are solutions, not so vicious, that we can work towards in terms of tolerance and mutual respect, but any extremists need to be barred from the table.
We already know their crazy point of view.

It is the sort of view that kills parents and children and whole families and peoples.

It is bigotry we must fight, Rabbi, and bigotry is only found in one place.

[petpost]

I hope you grow up to have a wonderful life, Moshe, and that nothing but goodness comes to you.and thanks for you.the pet post

[Shana]

His brother had Tay Sachs and passed away not long after:(

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

The Holzbergs continued to conceive knowing they were both Tay-Sachs carriers and had a likely chance of having babies that would suffer and die?!?!
What terrible, evil people.
I cannot and will not say they earned or deserved their deaths; rather, I'll think they died so that innocents would not have to suffer. How Christian, and therefore fitting for Habad missionaries.

[devora-torah]

this is totally an inappropriate discussion when all that is being shown that this lovely child has started school. find another f m topic to attack each other but this is inappropriate moment, kudus to f m to put the information on little moishe to his readers.

[Big Bill]

Unless he is some heir to a rabbinical throne, and therefore is going to have his every fart photographed, leave the kid alone. No need for cameramen and reporters converging on his door and waiting for him to step outside. Find some grownups to paparazzi.

[dh]

sorry I asked about his sibs.

[Drive-by Dan]

dh,
don't apologize for having simple curiousity, my friend.
I might have asked the same thing, had it occurred to me to ask.
I had to look up Tay-Sachs. It sounds nasty.

I know of many people who engage in the criminal negligence of knowingly having children who are guaranteed to inherit some genetic disorder.

A great many children suffer because some people are just too stupid for words and do not care about doing things intelligently.

People who carry genetic disorders should be sterilized in the name of the children they would have burdened with a horrible existence otherwise.

Eugenics might not have many positive connotations these days, but the fact remains that some people should be prevented from having children.

When medical science catches up, there might be ways to fix these problems, but until then, creating children whose lives are a living horror is the height of madness and irresponsibility.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to rant again, dh. You are a good best friend picker. I agree.

[Shana]

I can't believe you guys are talking about them in this way. They made choices that they needed to live by and it is not for anyone to judge until they are in their shoes. Shoes I am sure most of you don't want to fill. I certainly don't.

I answered the question but wasn't expecting these sorts of responses. You need to remember they got married young and were obviously very idealistic. They would never have chose to be. Carriers of this terrible disease.