Nine years after his parents were killed in a terrorist attack at the Chabad center in Mumbai, Moshe Holtzberg returned to India for the first time Tuesday to visit the place where he became an orphan.
Moshe was 2 at the time of the attack and was carried to safety by his Indian nanny, who found him by his parents' bodies. Holtzberg's parents, Rabbi Gabriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife Rivkah, were emissaries of the Chabad movement living in Mumbai at the time.
The 11-year-old boy visited the Chabad center Tuesday afternoon with his grandparents. The Chabad center was reopened in 2014.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who arrived in New Delhi on Sunday for a six-day visit, was scheduled to travel to Mumbai on Thursday. The prime minister was to meet Moshe and visit the Chabad center where the boy's parents were gunned down as 10 Muslim terrorists rampaged through Mumbai in a three-day siege in 2008.
During his visit, Netanyahu was scheduled to unveil a memorial to the 166 people who were killed in the attacks.
Before his arrival, Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky, the head of the Chabad Trust in India, told reporters that members were "very excited for the upcoming visit of Baby Moshe, who is not a baby anymore, but he will always remain in our heart as Baby Moshe."
He's coming back to "the very place where his life was miraculously saved by his Indian nanny," Kozlovsky said.
Sandra Samuel, the boy's nanny, traveled to Israel with Moshe after his parents were killed and was granted Israeli citizenship in 2010. On Tuesday, she accompanied him and his relatives as they arrived in Mumbai.
Netanyahu on Thursday will unveil a memorial to all the victims of the Mumbai attack, Kozlovsky said. There will be a special memorial for Moshe's parents, "who dedicated their lives to establish this center and they ran it until the last breath of their life," Kozlovsky said.
Netanyahu's visit to India, his first, marks 25 years since India and Israel established diplomatic relations. Last year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu and his wife visited Agra to see the Taj Mahal.
Speaking at a news conference in New Delhi later Tuesday, Netanyahu said India and Israel are "challenged by radical Islam and its terrorist offshoots from a variety of corners."
On Wednesday, Netanyahu headed to Gujarat, Modi's home state, before traveling to Mumbai, where he was also scheduled to meet with business leaders.
