Nariman House - Chabad House

Chabad House

The Chabad House, located at 5 Hormusji Street, Colaba, is one of eight synagogues in Mumbai and has been described as the epicentre of the Jewish community in the city.

This Chabad House is one of 4,000 such houses in 73 countries, typically run by husband-and-wife couples. In 2003, this Chabad House, the first in Mumbai, was opened by Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, newly married, and until the November 2008 Mumbai attacks was run by them. It catered to Israelis who are on their way to "party hotspots" such as Goa and Rajasthan, in addition to the city's local Jewish community and traveling Jewish businessmen. The Holtzbergs also ran a synagogue and taught Torah classes, in addition to the rabbi conducting weddings for local Jewish couples. It is the Chabad headquarters for Mumbai. The place was open to anyone who wanted a place to pray, eat kosher food or celebrate Jewish holidays. In a film in 2006, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg said that anyone who visited the center was welcome. It was not unusual for the Rabbi and his wife to have 30 people for dinner. Gavriel (born 1979, raised in Brooklyn, New York) and Rivka (born 1980 in Afula, Israel) Holtzberg came to Mumbai in 2003 after completing a mission in Thailand.

Three flights a week bring hundreds of Israeli travelers from Israel to Mumbai and in an interview Holtzberg said he understood the nature of their needs. The young rabbi, who was born in Israel but grew up in Brooklyn, said that they "need relief" from the army, from work, from real life. He said, "they come here to do everything the army didn't allow them to do. Their shoes had to be polished and tied—here they wear sandals. They had to cut their hair—here they grow their hair long."

In addition, "Jews from all nationalities stopped there—primarily Israelis, but also those from Singapore and other places. It was almost like a second home to them," said Elijah Jacob, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's country manager for India. "Our country director used to say it was like a second home to him because of all of the Jews there on Shabbat."

Gavriel also helped with some of the local synagogues. He helped them gather donations, do fund-raising for the synagogue T'feret Israel, in central Mumbai in Jacobs Circle, and helped build a mikvah there. Also, he was officially a shochet, making chickens available to the local Jewish community, making challah for the community, and the couple was "available for the community," there to answer Halakhic principles of the local community.

Chabad officials said they were certain the Mumbai house would reopen, and within hours of news of the Holtzbergs' deaths, young Chabad couples from around the world offered to move to Mumbai to continue their work.