In Mass., grief for Mumbai victims

Rabbis gather at State House

On the State House steps, two dozen bearded rabbis gathered yesterday morning in the cold sunshine to pay tribute to their slain colleagues. At small centers in Chestnut Hill and Swampscott and Worcester, Jews gathered last evening to mourn the dead.

Today, at Brandeis, a priest and an imam will join hands with rabbis at a rally; tomorrow, the Jewish community will join Asian-Americans in a candlelight vigil on City Hall Plaza.

Last week's terror attacks in Mumbai, which killed at least 173 people, have triggered a wave of grief and alarm within the Jewish community because the terrorists chose to target that city's Chabad House, where a young American rabbi and his wife were among six killed.

"Their purpose was to harm those who represent the free world, those who represent freedom and joy, and they struck at a symbol of Judaism," Rony Yedidia, Israel's deputy consul general in Boston, said of the terrorists. "Israel and the Jewish people, once again, paid a very heavy price for terrorism."

Yedidia said she had met the slain director of the Mumbai Chabad, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, and his wife, Rivkah, in the most ordinary of ways - she had been in Mumbai two years ago during the Jewish holiday of Purim, and had visited the Chabad House for a celebration.

"They opened their home despite the fact that they themselves were so far from their own families, they themselves were caring for a gravely ill child, they themselves had their own problems, but they opened their home and their hearts to all," she said. "They celebrated Purim with me and with others in such a joyful and wonderful fashion that they will always be in my heart."

Yedidia spoke at the most public of yesterday's events, a gathering of Chabad rabbis from Greater Boston at the front gates of the State House. The rabbis, members of the ultra-orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement, were joined by leaders from across the spectrum of the Jewish community, including the heads of most of the major Jewish community organizations in the city.

"This has had a profound impact on the community," Nancy K. Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said in an interview. "People are frightened, but Chabad is delivering the message beautifully - rather than be angry, we need to spread light."

Chabad rabbis, whose mission is to re-engage nonpracticing or less observant Jews, are dispersed around the world to Chabad houses that hold worship services and other events. There are about two dozen such houses on college campuses and in cities and towns in Eastern Massachusetts.

At yesterday's State House event, which was timed to coincide with the day when many of the Jewish Mumbai victims were being buried in Israel, the rabbis said that their movement would continue to send representatives to reach out to Jewish residents and travelers throughout the world.

"We're very dedicated in our mission, and our plan is to redouble our efforts and to do even more," said Rabbi Mendel Krinsky of the Chabad Jewish Center in Needham. "The only way to fight darkness is with light."

And Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, a scholar in residence at the Chabad House at Harvard University, said, "We want to negate negativity and death with life and the positive."

The Chabad rabbis paid tribute to the Mumbai victims and urged Jews to greater observance, encouraging women to light Sabbath candles and men to don phylacteries for prayer.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.