Moshe will become a rabbi like dad: 26/11 miracle baby's uncle

The uncle of 'Baby Moshe', who as a two-year-old miraculously survived shelling and gunfire during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack, says the boy will become a rabbi (Jewish religious teacher) like his father.

Moshe's nanny saved his life when terrorists attacked the five-storeyed Jewish centre Chabad House, now renamed as Nariman Light House, killing nine, including his father Rabbi Gavriel and mother Rivka, who was pregnant.

Moshe Holtzberg, who lives in the Israeli city of Afula with his maternal grandparents, visited Mumbai with them and Israel's prime minister in January this year.

"We hope to see Baby Moshe grow up, become a big rabbi like his father and continue in his parents foot steps," said the late rabbi's younger brother, also named Moshe Holtzberg.

"My nephew will be groomed to be the chief rabbi," the senior Moshe told PTI from New York, where he lives.

"Yes, he will be shown the way by his (paternal) grandparents Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg and Frieda Holtzberg, and Rabbi Israel Koslovski, the chief Rabbi of Mumbai," he said.

He said Baby Moshe was a "beacon of light and hope" for Mumbai, India and the world. The boy has "everlasting memories of the barbaric action" of terrorists, which will always serve to denote the contrast between good and evil, he added.

"I was with my brother two months before the Mumbai terror attack. My brother and his wife were so kind and heart warming. They didn't just feed Jewish people who came to the (Nariman) House, but gave food to the poor people in Colaba market. Their house was open for everybody. I will never forget them," he said.

Holtzberg said 10 years after the worst-ever terror attack in India, none of the main perpetrators, including Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi and Hafiz Saeed, are in jail.