By SARI ZEIDLER
-- and perhaps the personal darkness that Holtzberg felt when his brother, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, was murdered in the attacks in Mumbai, India, in November.
One of the targets of the attacks was Nariman House, a Chabad home for Orthodox Jews. Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, were inside, and both were killed. Only the couple's 2-year-old son, Moshe, survived.
As Hanukkah began, Avraham Holtzberg, who is also from Crown Heights, joined Merrick children as they painted dreidels and feasted on homemade doughnuts, and parents sang songs and chatted with friends at a celebration organized by the Chabad Center for Jewish Life of Bellmore-Merrick. It was far removed from the bullet-riddled streets of Mumbai and the home in Israel that Avraham Holtzberg recently visited to bury his brother.
Appropriate for the opening night of the Festival of Lights, Holtzberg shared his feelings about his brother's legacy. "A little bit of light sends away a lot of darkness," he said. This was how his brother lived his life, Holtzberg said, and the way he expects the Jewish community to respond to the tragedy in Mumbai. "We are not going to fight the terrorists with weapons. We are going to win them with Shabbos candles, tefillin and mitzvot," said Holtzberg, referring to traditional Jewish prayer practices and the Hebrew word meaning good deeds.
Merrick's Chabad center has taken steps to fulfill Holtzberg's vision, creating the Mumbai Scholarship Memorial Fund, which will benefit preschool children. Merrick Chabad Rabbi Shimon Kramer compiled a list of good deeds done by the congregation and presented it to Holtzberg.
Kramer, a close friend of the Holtzberg family for many years, invited Avraham to be a guest speaker, and Holtzberg said the personal relationship made his decision to spend the first night of Hanukkah in Merrick an easy one, even though he was invited to as many as 10 other congregations.
"Rabbi Holtzberg reminds us of the different world that we live in, where so many people try to bring darkness to the world," said Kramer. Looking around at the smiling faces of the families in attendance, he added that Holtzberg brought with him a message of hope.
Comments about this story? SZeidler@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
