Jewish group confirms rabbi, wife killed in India
1 hour ago
NEW YORK (AP) &lsqauo; The Chabad-Lubavitch movement has confirmed that a New York
rabbi and his wife are among the dead in the India terrorist attack.
A spokesman, Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, says Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and
his wife, Rivka, have been killed in Mumbai. They ran the movement's local
headquarters, which was one of 10 sites attacked.
The couple's toddler son, Moshe Holtzberg, was taken out of the center by an
employee, and is now with his grandparents.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information.
AP's earlier story is below.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) &lsqauo; A father and his teenage daughter from a Virginia
community that promotes a form of meditation were among those killed in the
terrorist attacks in India, a colleague said Friday.
Alan Scherr, 58, and daughter Naomi, 13, were in a cafe Wednesday night in
Mumbai when they were killed, said Bobbie Garvey, a spokeswoman for the
Synchronicity Foundation. The U.S. State Department confirmed their deaths
on Friday morning.
The Scherrs were among 25 foundation participants in a spiritual program in
Mumbai. Four others on the mission were injured in the cafe attack in the
luxury Oberoi hotel, Garvey said, including two women from Tennessee.
Members of the New York-based Chabad-Lubavitch ultra-Orthodox Jewish
movement were anxiously awaiting the names of victims at its local
headquarters in Mumbai, which was one of 10 sites attacked.
Among the three people rescued from the center Thursday morning was a
toddler identified as the 18-month-old son of the couple running the center,
Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka.
The whereabouts of the couple, who moved to India from Brooklyn, are still
unknown. The bodies of five hostages were found by Indian commandoes early
Friday night.
The Virginia father was a Maryland native and a former college professor who
lived at the Synchronicity sanctuary about 15 miles southwest of
Charlottesville.
"I would call them bright stars," Garvey said of the Scherrs.
"Extraordinary, bright, very positive &lsqauo; examples to the world."
The Scherrs had lived at the foundation all of Naomi's life, Garvey said.
Alan Scherr's wife, Kia, and her two sons did not travel with them to India
According to the foundation's Web site, the community is led by Master
Charles, a former leading disciple of Swami Paramahansa Muktananda. He is
described on the Web site as "one of the most popular spiritual teachers
from India to build a following the West in the 1970s." He taught a form of
yoga.
Garvey identified the Synchronicity injured as Helen Connolly of Toronto,
who was grazed by a bullet; Rudrani Devi and Linda Ragsdale, both of
Nashville, who both underwent surgery for bullet wounds; and Michael Rudder
of Montreal, who remains in intensive care after being shot three times.
Other members of the mission narrowly escaped the attack.
