Kavitha Iyer
The Gateway of India and Nariman House in Colaba joined the Statue of Liberty in New York and dozens of other global landmarks on Thursday in a worldwide campaign against last month’s terror attacks on Mumbai with an age-old philosophy — fight evil with good.
Joining the worldwide Unite The Lights campaign, during the eight days of Hanukkah, parents of slain Rabbi Gavriel and wife Rivkah Holtzberg flew in from Israel to light the ‘menorah’ (traditional candelabra).
Even as Gavriel’s father Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg lit the menorah at Nariman House, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, the New York-based global chairman of the Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch movement, said: “The building in which we stand now is physically destroyed by the terror attacks. But it has become a beacon of light for the whole world”.
The Mumbai events had provoked a universal outcry, with goodwill from people of all backgrounds flowing in by way of e-mails and donations to rebuild the Mumbai Chabad House, said a spokesperson for the Chabad-Lubavitch movement in New York.
Among those who participated in the campaign was Rabbi Daniel Moscowitz of Ilinois, who went to Israel where he met families of those killed at the Nariman House. He carried around 500 “mitzvah pledge cards” with over 400 notes from school children. “The concept of a Mitzvah pledge card is to commit to undertake new good deeds in memory of those who perished in Mumbai,” Moscowitz, now back in Chicago, said.
He said: “It seems clear to me that you can’t fight terror with guns and rockets. Yes, terrorists must be fought by the governments and military and might. But terror is fought with kindness. Darkness is fought with light. Evil is fought with goodness. And in every fibre of our being, we believe that good is greater and more powerful than evil.”
Back in Mumbai, Kotlarsky said the lights symbolised the goodness and spirit of the young couple. “We will light as many lamps as we can. This will spread the light and bring in goodness in the world,” said Rabbi Abraham Holtzberg, one amongst the group.
Later at the Gateway of India, Rivkah’s father Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg said: “We pray for peace to be back in this wonderful and peaceful city of Mumbai.”
Meanwhile, a section of the Chabad website called Mumbai Mitzvah has attracted over 10,000 responses with people promising acts of kindness.
-Indian Express.com
