Like many of you, I spent most of my Thanksgiving eve following the developments of the situation in Mumbai from my PC. I do not have TV in my apt (anymore) and I wanted to get up to the minute coverage of the situation. It is now Thanksgiving morning, and I am still in bed, following everything online.

I’ve been visiting CNN, FoxNews, Jpost, Chabad.org, and most importantly search.twitter.com. Like my previous post about Twitter suggests, it is a website involving conversations — real time. People are taking information from the aforementioned websites and reposting the important stuff on Twitter, using keywords such as #mumbai, #nariman, #chabad, etc. (The Nariman House is the Chabad House where terrorists are currently holding numerous Jewish hostages, including the Chabad Rabbi and his wife). 

I learned not long ago that the Chabad couple’s baby, Moshe, was saved by the cook earlier this morning. We have been urging everyone to say prayers / Psalms (Tehillim) for the Chabad couple: Gavriel Noach ben Freida Bluma and Rivka Bat Yehudis. 

Let’s pray that all of the Jews, Israelis, and all other victims in Mumbai come out safely from this horrific situation.

I will continue to post updates on this situation on Twitter: http://twitter.com/yeahthatskosher

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dani

24 Comments

  • Let’s pray that all of the Jews, Israelis, and all other victims in Mumbai come out safely from this horrific situation.

    Is it really necessary to muddy up this petition to the Lord with a gratuitous, pro-forma reference to the safety of all those “other victims?” After all, we wouldn’t want to take a chance on distracting God’s focus from the issue we really care about, now would we?

  • Seriously?

    Obviously, I want all the Jews safe there first and foremost, but no one else should die regardless of their religion. Unless they are terrorists of course.

  • Oh ds. Dani is new here and may not be familiar with your uh… unique brand of wit. We saw the news today, oh boy, and we were all horrified by the indiscriminate death and carnage. Horrified regardless of who the victims were. We are all God’s children and it’s a tragedy whenever anyone innocent is victimized this way. My prayers and condolences go out to all the victims.

    And this is Jewlicious. We will obviously put some emphasis on the Jewish aspect of this story. I’ve been to Chabad Houses in Thailand and Vietnam and my Israeli friends who have been to India have all been to the Chabad House in Mumbai. Something this awful that has happened to a kind, giving and generous couple like Gavriel and Rivka, is a tragedy that ought not be used in a cynical attempt to criticize a well meaning and perfectly appropriate concern over Jewish lives.

    So again, our prayers and condolences go out to all the innocent victims of today’s carnage. That’s not pro-forma ds – not a nod to insincere political correctness. That’s as sincere a sentiment as I am capable of. That still ought not stop anyone from taking particular note of the fate of the Chabad couple and those with them – had I been in Mumbai, I may have been amongst them.

  • Thank G-d the baby was saved.

    Unfortunately the reports of the people released from the hotel did not sound too encouraging.

    Yet another example of Israel and India facing the same Islamic threat.

  • “Is it really necessary to muddy up this petition to the Lord with a gratuitous, pro-forma reference to the safety of all those “other victims?” After all, we wouldn’t want to take a chance on distracting God’s focus from the issue we really care about, now would we?”

    Wow thats just plain evil! You should be ashamed of calling yourself a Jew!

  • It was worse than evil. A bunch of Muslims target a Jewish center and when somebody on a site called JEWLICIOUS points out the situation, he’s criticized for it. Nice going, ds. At least make an effort to criticize the terrorists next time.

  • ON THE OTHER HAND… let’s not get all holier than thou when criticizing ds. The notion of the existence of Jewish ethnocentricity is not so outrageous. We often look at issues from the perspective of “is it good for the Jews?” to the exclusion of other considerations. Granted, there are only 15-16 million of us and it’s not wrong to be concerned – many amongst us harbor chauvinistic notions that are often masked by “pro forma” nods to political correctness. I know dani and I know that this wasn’t the case here, but ds did not allude to a notion that is completely outrageous. ds may be snarky, but I’m pretty sure he’s not evil.

  • CK, you and Dani are absolutely right that in this occasion, there is no room for reserving sympathies just for Jewish victims. You have a nice approach and nice comments.

    I would add that what you politely term as ethnocentric is often interpreted and indeed often displays itself as chauvinistic and obnoxious. While anti-Semitism stems from a variety of unwarranted accusations, this is the one area that I would identity where Jewish personal interactions may be contributing.

  • ds is totally making a valid point. so what if he’s a bit snarky? why write “Jews, Israelis, and other victims”? I would have said, ” all the victims”. But of course, making a list does not imply sequential value. it’s not like Dani said, “Jews, Israelis and other victims, in that order.”it’s the “jews, first and foremost” comment which is most annoying to me. a totally not snarky question here, religiously speaking, is a jewish life always more important than a gentile’s? value out the window? I’m wondering.

  • I found your site because I wanted to hear more about the American toddler that was rescued by the cook. Guess we all have our labels.

  • Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka

    Gave up their lives for the Jewish People.

    Not everybody has the resolve or strength
    to do like these brave souls did.

    Lots of ppl talk, some actually do good
    things in this world and have made this
    world a better place, even if with
    the obvious sacrifice….

  • This week’s attack was a consummate success if its perpetrators sought to disfigure the image of their faith. Nice work, gentlemen.

  • When CNN, an American news channel, covers an attack like this, they tend to report on the number of Americans “and other” victims. When Canada covers events in Afghanistan, their media emphasize Canadian soldiers. When a Catholic paper covers a story, they seek to find the Catholic angle on the story or how it affects fellow Catholics.

    I don’t understand what is offensive to people about what Dani wrote.

  • The story of baby Moshe being rescued by the nanny makes me think of the original story.

  • july_jones, that is exactly what I thought of! I guess History repeats itself. The Torah teaches us this. This baby will be a great new leader someday, and he will do wonderful things in this world. Terrorists are the same as amalek, like Haman, in the Purim story, and Hitler….they need to be killed.