Unmindful of the tragedy that he had undergone, two-year-old Moshe, dressed in a bright green T-shirt and blue shorts, was carried into a synagogue in Mumbai to attend a prayer meeting in memory of the Jews killed in the terror attack, including that of his parents Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivika.
Holding a ball in hand, Moshe who was orphaned on the day of his birthday (November 28), kept looking around probably wanting to see his parents even as his caretaker picked him up in his arms.
Standing right next to him were his grand-parents who had come all the way from America as soon as they had heard about the attack.
As the prayers started, Moshe could be seen getting fidgety and ended up crying which he stopped only after he was allowed to play.
Meanwhile, even as the synagogue echoed with the prayers, sobbing could be heard from among the 100-odd Jews who had come for the prayer meeting.
While the ladies present wiped their tears, men could be seen trying best to hold back their tears. "We found the child on the second floor. We had initially thought he was sleeping on the fifth," said the caretaker of Moshe, who was rescued in a dramatic fashion by the cook of the house, Sandra Samuel (44).
Samuel had literally pulled off a coup when she, hiding inside one of the rooms after having slammed the door on a terrorist's face, rushed to the second floor after hearing Moshe yelling out her name continuously.
As per Israeli media reports, she saw the parents lying on the ground, apparently "unconscious".
Soon enough she caught hold of the boy and ran out into the safety of the National Security Guards commandos, some of whom had entered the building by then.
Tragically, his parents who arrived in Mumbai in 2003 to serve the small local Jewish community, visiting business people and the throngs of tourists, many of them Israelis, were found dead once the fierce encounter with the terrorists was over, nearly 48 hours after it all began first on November 26 evening.
© 2024 Rediff.com -