The Holtzberg family trust wants Nariman House to be an innovative Jewish education centre for children, with Moshe's room preserved as it is. Freida denied that there was any monetary dispute. "This is not about funds but principles. Chabad wants Nariman House to be a memorial, but we think memorials are just that. We want it to be of service to the community."
26/11: 'Best revenge will be Moshe returning to city as Rabbi'
Yogesh Pawar • DNA/NDTV
Mumbai – Moshe, one of the youngest 26/11 survivors, has turned four. "He was too young to remember," said his grandfather Nachman Holtzberg.
"We want to ensure that he does not get traumatised at this young age. The attack and what happened to his parents was too horrific, details of it can wait till he has grown up and is mature to understand and cope with it."
Israel, he said, has specialised experts in paediatric post-traumatic stress disorder given the number of attacks it has faced. "They advised us not to tell Moshe details of the incident."
Moshe asks for his eema and abi (mother and father) and wants to know where they are, he said. "Every morning he says good morning to the photos of his parents. We tell him they are with God."
The child is being raised in the path of his parents, as an orthodox Jew by a community, which has adopted him. "The best revenge, the community feels, will be the day Moshe comes back to Mumbai and takes over his father's job as a Rabbi," he said.
Nachman and his wife Freida Holtzberg are in Mumbai for a prayer service in memory of the 26/11 victims. They are also in the city to enquire about the reconstruction of Nariman House, which is mired in dispute.
Chabad Lubavitch, which runs the centre, wants the building dedicated to Gavriel and Rivka and other terror victims with a synagogue and a hall.
The Holtzberg family trust wants Nariman House to be an innovative Jewish education centre for children, with Moshe's room preserved as it is. Freida denied that there was any monetary dispute. "This is not about funds but principles. Chabad wants Nariman House to be a memorial, but we think memorials are just that. We want it to be of service to the community."
Moshe was three days short of his second birthday when the 26/11 attack orphaned him. His Indian nanny Sandra rescued him by hoodwinking the terrorists and running out of the Jewish centre.
The Holtzberg's own court filings and statements Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg made to the media make it clear this dispute is also about money – money Chabad has apparently stolen.
Chabad claims to have raised only $1.6 million to rebuild Nariman House and to fund Moshe Holtzberg's trust, and says silghtly more than half of what was raised, $850,000, was put into the trust for Moshe. That leaves about $750,000 unaccounted for – if you believe Chabad's claim that it only raised $1.6 million.
I don't believe that claim and many others do not, either.
What Chabad seems to have done is several questionable things:
1. It appears to have raised more than $1.6 million, but is concealing it.
2. Apart from the money Chabad says it put in Moshe's trust, it appears to have used the money it raised for things unrelated to rebuilding Nariman House. Indeed, the money may have been used in other countries or may be sitting in Brooklyn, for all we know in the private bank accounts of Chabad's leaders.
3. Chabad Houses worldwide held events in the Holtzberg's memory and raised money at them and surrounding them to rebuild Nariman House, but appear to have kept that money rather than sending it (or a publicly specified portion of it) to the Chabad of India Trust designated to rebuild Nariman House.
If true, this isn't a nickle an dime theft – it is a theft involving millions of dollars and large scale violation of public trust.
Because the fund is based in Brooklyn at Chabad's world headquarters, the IRS and FBI should investigate to see if, indeed, crimes have been committed.
Related Posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 7, Part 8.