Moshe Holtzberg celebrated his third birthday on Wednesday the way many Jewish children do — he got his first haircut. He appeared not to recall the tragic events of a year ago, when his parents were killed in a terrorist attack in Mumbai, India.
Surrounding the smiling tot were his grandparents and Sandra Samuel, the caretaker who brought him home to Israel after the attack on the Jewish outreach Chabad House in Mumbai. Hundreds joined them at the group's Israel center, a village outside Tel Aviv, to mark a year since the attack.
Six people were killed at the Chabad House, among 166 who died in the coordinated attack in several locations in Mumbai. Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, Moshe's parents, opened the house in 2003 as the local representatives of Chabad, which offers services and kosher food to Jews in many locations around the world.
Attackers rampaged through the building, killing people, as Indian commandoes fired at them. The house has not been repaired in the year that has passed.
Samuel rescued Moshe unhurt from the bullet-raked building. She said it took some time for the child to recover from the attack. Now he recognizes his parents in pictures, but he no longer cries out when he sees them.
"Everything is normal," she said. "It took a little bit of time, but now it's completely normal."
The child is being raised by his grandparents.