The Jewish centre of Chabad house in Colaba, Mumbai has got its new name and new identity on the occasion of the 10 anniversary of the deadliest terror attack 26/11 in the year 2008. On the eve of its 10 anniversary the building held a completely different picture of sanguinity against the trail of the bullets.
The six storied building, now turned into a museum, is opened for the general public to take a tour of the Jewish outreach centre, that suffered heavy damage due to intense firing from two terrorists of Lashkar-e-Taiba during 26/11.
The building is being renamed as ‘Nariman Light House’, and stands as a tribute for all the 166 people who lost their lives in the brutal attack. The anniversary ceremony was organized by the Chabad of India Trust last Sunday afternoon.
The visitors who wants to visit the memorial can soon be able to register online since the proceedings are on for this. Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky, the head of the trust, informed about it and said, “In order to keep a check on the number of visitors among other things, all the procedures deserved to be online and visitors will be allowed from the terrace to the other floors, just after the second phase is over.”
In the second phase, late Gabriel Holtzberg and his late wife Rivka Holtzberg, who was five months pregnant at the time of the terror attack, will be immortalised in the museum. The process will take another year to be completed. With an intention of presenting the Nariman Light House as a symbol of hope and action, it’s surroundings will be decorated with greenery and waterfalls.
Where as at the entry point of the fourth floor, the door will continue with its damaged look, just as it was in the days after the attack. In the very next room the visitors can encounter the historical accounts of the attack and will be clued-up on global terrorism.
The fifth floor will exhibit the Holtzbergs living style.. Moshe – the only survivor of the incident, is the son of Holtzbergs, is coming to Mumbai in the next year. Moshe’s room also has hand-drawn pictures of his mother.
Six planks with the paintings of the six places targeted that day — the Taj and Oberoi hotels, the Leopold Cafe, the Kuber boat, the CamaHospital and the Nariman House — would be attribute of the memorial, Rabbi added.
Eliav Nahlieli the Chief Architect of the plan, explained the very thought of the incident is horrifying and said, “This won’t be just a museum only. All the furniture and household items will be portrayed with all their dramatic artefacts to show how the apartment looked on the eve of the massacre.”
Nariman House was one of the targets of November 26, 2008 bomb attacks, where the Holtzberg couple, four other Israelis and American visitors were killed. Moshe, only two years old then, was later found alive beside the bodies of his parents.
