A painful note from Rabbi Levi Brackman,
“Please help me help others.”
November 28, 2008
It is with tremendous sorrow, mourning and tears that I write to you today. Yesterday I asked you to pray and give charity in merit of the safety of my colleague in Mumbai, India. I was praying that somehow with our collective acts of goodness and prayers we would be able to change the course and that Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife Rivka would come out of the Chabad House unharmed. Tragically it did not happen this way. Five Jews, including the Holtzberg’s were killed by coldblooded, evil terrorist. I nonetheless appreciate your prayers and acts of kindness.
Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife were the essence of goodness. They represented kindness, decency, love and dedication to others, even to complete strangers. They came face to face with the essence of evil and tragically they could not survive its intensity. The Holtzberg’s were killed simply because they were Jews. This is an affront to all Jewish people and I am sure you join me in grief and in condemnation.
As I look to the future I ask for your partnership in the following endeavor. I would like that we-you and I together-should help ensure the personal security of families like the Holzberg’s who live in unstable and developing countries for the sole purpose of helping others. Chabad has centers all over the world including in other parts of India, the Congo, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Morocco, Tunisia and many other countries where Jews are found and need support. The husband and wife teams that run these Chabad centers do so with love and joy but clearly the personal safety risks associated with their work is significant.
Please help me put together a sizeable donation that I will ensure is sent to the Chabad centers most in need of funding to help them beef up their own personal security (bullet proof windows, electric gates, guards etc) and emergency logistical support (proper plans for times of emergencies like planes waiting, hidden exits etc).
I would like to raise at least $30,000.00 for this cause. Please give generously.
You can donate http://www.jitf.org/day-camp-school/3.html
Please put “Other” in the drop down menu or you can mail a check to:
Security Fund,
3959 Ponderosa Ln,
Evergreen CO 80439
make checks payable to JITF – Security Fund.
For other donation options please call me on 720.933.7495.
Thanks so much for your partnership in this–I cannot think of a greater Mitzvah than this.
I look forward to only sharing good news with you in the future.
Warm regards, Rabbi Levi Brackman
and from the respected Phyiis Chesler at Pajama Media:
The Thanksgiving Day Massacre in Mumbai
The Islamic terrorists in Mumbai targeted Westerners and wealthy Indians. They chose huge, 4000 room hotels and other large, highly symbolic targets such as cafes and the old Victoria railway station. But they also carefully chose a very tiny building, Nariman House, also a highly symbolic location. Chabad is a worldwide movement of Hasidic Jews who do not proselytize, who are not violent, who live to help others and who have “shluchim,” or messengers-in-service on every continent.
On late Wednesday afternoon, when I was asked to write about the Mumbai massacre and I learned that Chabad House had been seized–I knew, I knew, that the fate of the Jews in Nariman House had been sealed. Of course, I dared not write this. But really, did anyone doubt for a moment that, in addition to Americans, Europeans, and wealthy Indians (both Hindu and Muslim), that these barbarians would kill all the known and unarmed Jews they could find?
Click on the Title above to continue reading.