Afula, Israel – Moshe Holtzberg was snatched to safety by his Indian nanny from under the noses of the gunmen who brought carnage to India last November.
Since that day, Sandra Samuel has rarely left his side and has now taken on the role as his second mother.
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“God has granted that I take care of this small baby,” she said. “It’s my responsibility to be with him now.”
Just as she has since the time he was a newborn, Miss Samuel, 44, sleeps in the same room as Moshe.
His Rabbi father and mother were killed the day before his second birthday when Islamic militants took over the Chabad House they ran in Mumbai, one of several targets they laid siege to in the city during the devastating terrorist raid in which more than 170 people died.
It was Miss Samuel, the couple’s cook and nanny, who made headlines around the world when she emerged from her hiding space in a storage closet to follow the cries of Moshe.
She found him sitting next to his mother, who lay unconscious next to him. His clothes were splattered with blood. She scooped the wailing toddler into her arms and rushed to safety outside.
She said she had no doubt in her mind she would follow him to Israel when his maternal grandparents decided to take him back.
She has now decided to stay for “as long as he needs me.”
“He is always close by to me. When I’m not there for ten or fifteen minutes he asks where I am,” said Miss Samuel who has moved in with his grandparents at their home in the northern Israeli town of Afula.
Miss Samuel, who came to Mumbai from Goa and previously worked as a caretaker for the elderly and others before she started work at the Chabad House over four years ago, said she planned to tell Moshe about his parents when he is older.
“I will tell him his parents were extraordinary,” she said. “They were so special, so warm.”
“I still have not processed that they are not here anymore. I am very happy to be with him. He loves me and I love him. It is all God’s grace.”
Moshe’s mother, Rivka Holtzberg, 28, was six months pregnant when she was shot. Moshe’s father, Gavriel Holtzberg, 29 was also found shot and killed along with seven others who had been guests at the Jewish guesthouse.
Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg, Moshe’s grandfather, said that in the immediate days after the attack the toddler, a boy with honey coloured hair and brown eyes, was afraid to be around men so the Miss Samuel’s help was crucial.
He said: “He has a strong connection to her, like a mother. He is with her all the time.”
When he asks where his mother and father are he is told they are in heaven and will often peer into the sky looking for them.
He also asks about his older brother Dov, who suffered from a severe genetic disease called Tay-Sachs and died about a month after his parents at the age of four and a half. The eldest Holtzberg son named Mendi also died of the same disease at the age of 3 and a half.
When Moshe cries out for his parents, which he does less often than he used to, it’s hard for his grandparents to keep their composure.
“This is difficult, it breaks our heart,” said Rabbi Rosenberg. “But we try our best never to appear upset in front of him.”
this is so sad
Even now months after those very dark days its hard to read about Moshe without tears coming to my eyes so sad ..so sad…May he continue to grow and fill the void of his holy parents…
May she be repaid for all her kindness.
what a rachmunes nabech he has a great father and mother now HASHEM
May he discover true joy in his life and perhaps we should all continue to daven for him on regular basis.
May Hashem help this special Holy familya. May Hashem avenge the blood of these innocent Holy Jews (Tzadikim)
Moshele, moshele, let me tell you somthing moshele, Neshumele: you are so big, so gevaldig, so beautiful, so deep & holy, the holiest of what holy ever ment… Klal yisroel is, & will always be there for you moshele, you have somthing more -Much more then all of us & that’s what we call: PAYING OUR BILL’S, paying the price for US, you paid for being a holy yid, a holy jew…
may god bless you Moshele, we all love you so much -Moshele, & as does God love you Moshele.
I agree that it’s sad, beautiful, nice etc…, but is it just me or is it a bit mudneh that the boy’s new “mother” is a random Indian lady?
It really does make me sad. This lady is now his mother figure. I only hope when he his older he won’t think how some yids think about goyim.
Enough about Moishele already.
We would do well to remember the mesiras nefesh of his parents, not that of their death, but the mesiras nefesh they had whilst they were alive, dedicating themselves to Klal Yisroel. We would do well to learn from them and to emulate their deeds!!
But let Moishle live his life in peace, and let us live ours.
Enough with the “commercialisation” of this Kid.
I too cry every time I think of him, and certainly when I read about little Moishele. May all our tears pierce the Gates of Shomayim and bring us the geulah shelaima bimhaira, so that he will be reunited with his special parents, and their entire families will have a complete nechama, as will all of klal yisroel.
All these months later and it’s still hard to read about this little boy without crying. I know Hashem has special plans for you when you grow older. In the meantime we all think of you everyday and we thank Sandra for being there for you. She has a special place in Gan Eden. May Hashem grant her many long years. May your grandparents shep much yiddisher nachas from you.
From –A yiddishe Momma
He Should Be Adopted By A Nice Frum Mother, May The Father Of Orphans Be With Him
Just like Moshe Rabainu!
Saved and raised by a non Jewish woman.
Not every VIN post requires an alternative or “devil’s advocate” weltenschung. The Holzberg’s, in life and in death, were the most admirable of what Klal Yisroel has to offer. And their son’s salvation is a neis nigleh, including the fact that Sandra survived as well and is there for him. There really is nothing left to say, other than halevai we learn from and act as if we really knew who and what the Holzberg’s are all about.
Why do they still have the nanny around? What good will it do for the child?
All the negative comments expressed here are keeping Moshiach from coming today! Are we ever going to learn? I want Moshiach now / stop being haters!
The nanny is a great woman, her self sacrifice on Moshele’s behalf is second to none.
The problem is, at what point do you say he is ready for her to leave him? When a child is very young, he tends to forget and rebuild more easily.The longer you keep his dependence on the nanny & the older he gets, it will be much HARDER, not easier, for him to seperate himself from her.
It’s truly a tragic situation, a “catch 22” sort of.