Winning the war on terror with good deeds

“They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.” — Isaiah 2:4

Rabbi Avraham Holtzberg stood beside Cammans Pond in Merrick last December with head bent slightly to the side and hands clasped at his waist, looking solemn and forlorn at the Merrick Chabad’s otherwise joyful Hanukkah celebration. A month earlier, terrorists had murdered Holtzberg’s brother, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, 29, and his sister-in-law, Rivka, 28, in Mumbai, India.

Some 174 people were killed in the assault with bombs and machine guns that targeted 10 sites throughout Mumbai. A Pakistani militant group was reported to have carried out the attacks.

Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, originally from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, ran Nariman House, a Chabad home for Orthodox Jews in Mumbai that helped any and all in need, from the poor to drug addicts. They died in a hail of gunfire at the house. Their 2-year-old son, Moshe, miraculously survived.

Rabbi Shimon Kramer, spiritual leader of the Chabad Center for Jewish Life of Merrick-Bellmore, was a close friend of the Holtzberg family for many years, so it was fitting that Avraham Holtzberg join him for last year’s Hanukkah festivities. Avraham made a declaration at the celebration, which was attended by dozens of local Jewish children and their parents. His words astounded me and gave me hope.

“A little bit of light sends away a lot of darkness,” Holtzberg said in a Jan. 1-7 Herald article. “We are not going to fight the terrorists with weapons. We are going to win them with Shabbos candles, tefillin and mitzvot. Chabad remembers Mumbai.” He was referring to traditional Jewish prayer practices and the Hebrew word meaning good deeds.

Instead of harboring ill will toward the people of Mumbai, Avraham set up a scholarship fund for pre-school children in the poverty-stricken metropolis. He turned a sword into a ploughshare.