This week marks three years since Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg Hy”d were brutally murdered by Pakistani terrorists in their Chabad House in Mumbai, and while the entire world was horrified by the loss, Yair Daniel Lavon’s very future seemed dependent on Gavriel Holtzberg’s kindness. Dani, serving a ten-year sentence in a Goa prison for what he says is a framed drug rap, saw his life crumble with the Holtzbergs’ murder — until Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg stepped in to continue his son’s mission.
It’s Minchah time on a sticky summer afternoon in Crown Heights Brooklyn as Rabbi Nachman Holtzberg makes his way up to the front of the shul seeking to secure the position of shaliach tzibbur as he’s in the midst of the year of mourning for his mother. As he’s taking his measured steps his ear catches the conversation of a yungerman having a learning session on his cell phone. For some inexplicable reason Rabbi Holtzberg feels connected to the scene.
“Who are you talking to?” Rabbi Holtzberg asks his friend with less tact than is socially acceptable.
“I’m in the middle of a transatlantic phone call with a Jewish prisoner in a jail in India” the man answers.
“In Goa?” Rabbi Holtzberg throws out a wild guess suddenly remembering the story of the incarcerated Israeli. “Is his name Dani?”
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