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The Mumbai Attacks
Ten coordinated armed attacks by Pakistani terrorists began in Mumbai, India on this date in 2008. The attacks lasted for three days and killed at least 166 people while wounding more than 300. Among the targeted sites was Nariman House, a Jewish center run by Chabad, where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka were murdered (in front of their two-year-old son, who was saved by his Indian nanny; she was later granted Israeli citizenship) along with four other hostages. According to radio transmissions, the attackers were told by their coordinators in Pakistan that “the lives of Jews were worth fifty times those of non-Jews.” Relatives of the Holtzbergs recently filed a wrongful death suit against the terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba as well as the Pakistani Intelligence Services, which evidence shows to have been deeply involved in the attacks. One of the ten terrorists was captured alive; the rest were killed. Many of their victims were either abused or tortured.
“I do believe that terrorism has no religion, terrorists have no religion, and that they are a friend of no religion. No religion in the world preaches atrocities against innocent men, women and children.” —Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
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Lawrence Bush edited Jewish Currents from 2003 until 2018. He is the author of Bessie: A Novel of Love and Revolution and Waiting for God: The Spiritual Explorations of a Reluctant Atheist, among other books. His new volume of illustrated Torah commentaries, American Torah Toons 2, is scheduled for publication this year.
