Chabad Lubavitch of India
Chabad-Lubavitch in India: Nariman House in Mumbai, attacked in 2008, and Chabad Houses on the Israeli backpacker circuit
| Chabad Lubavitch in India
| |
|---|---|
| Logo | 
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| Type | Jewish religious and community organisation |
| Founded | 2003 (Mumbai); other centres later |
| Founder(s) | Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg (Mumbai) |
| Location | Multiple centres across India |
| Key people | Yisroel Kozlovsky and Chaya Kozlovsky (Mumbai); Shneur Kupchik (Delhi); Roey Merili and Neta Merili (Goa) |
| Website | chabadindia.org (Mumbai); chabad-goa.com (Goa) |
Chabad Lubavitch in India is the network of Chabad-Lubavitch centres serving Jewish residents, expatriates and the large numbers of Israeli backpackers who travel through the country. The centres form part of the informal “Hummus Trail” of post-military Israeli travel routes and provide kosher food, Shabbat and holiday services, traveller assistance and religious infrastructure.[1]
History
The first permanent Chabad centre in India opened in Mumbai in 2003 at Nariman House in Colaba, directed by Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka Holtzberg. It served both the local Bene Israel and other Jewish communities and the large numbers of Israeli travellers. On 26 November 2008 the centre was attacked during the coordinated Mumbai terrorist attacks carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba. Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and several guests were killed; their toddler son Moshe was rescued by his nanny. The renovated building reopened on 26 August 2014 under Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky (also spelt Israel Kozlovsky) and Chaya Kozlovsky. About 25 rabbis from across Asia attended, and plans were announced to turn the top two floors of the five-storey building into a $2.5m museum.[2][3][4]
Other centres were established later along the main Israeli backpacker routes, including Delhi (Paharganj and Vasant Vihar), Goa (Palolem), Dharamsala/Dharamkot, Bangalore and seasonal or smaller outposts.
Centres
- Chabad House Mumbai / Nariman House (Colaba) – directed by Yisroel Kozlovsky and Chaya Kozlovsky; also associated with Chaim Uri Bloy and Chaya Mushka Bloy. Includes synagogue, kosher restaurant, school and traveller services.
- Chabad of Delhi – Paharganj (travellers) and Chabad of South Delhi / Vasant Vihar (Shneur Kupchik).
- Chabad House Goa / Palolem (directed by Roey Merili / Roi Marili and Neta Merili); kosher restaurant, Shabbat meals, mikvah, kindergarten. Seasonal location in Anjuna.
- Chabad of Dharamsala / Chabad House of Dharamkot (Shneur Kupchik / Dror Shaul associated).
- Chabad of Bangalore / Bengaluru (Levi Citron and Zlatie Citron).
- Chabad of Manali (Baruch Shenhav).
- Chabad of Pushkar (Shimshon Goldstein).
- Chabad of Kasol (seasonal; Daniel Winderbaum).
- Other locations on the backpacker circuit include Rishikesh and seasonal sites.
The network primarily serves Israeli post-army travellers (estimated tens of thousands per year on the Hummus Trail) alongside smaller numbers of local and resident Jews.[1]
Activities
Centres offer daily and Shabbat services, large holiday meals (especially Passover and Rosh Hashanah), Glatt kosher restaurants (often with Israeli/Middle Eastern menus), Torah classes, traveller support (lost documents, medical or drug-related issues), mikvahs and, in some places, preschool or children’s programmes. Security measures at Chabad centres have included police checks of passports before entry (documented at the Paharganj centre in Delhi on 10 October 2023 in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attacks) and increased police presence after terror alerts.[5]
Controversies and access restrictions
Mumbai 2008 attacks
Nariman House was one of the targets of the 26–29 November 2008 Mumbai attacks, a series of coordinated shootings and bombings carried out by ten gunmen linked to the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Other targets included the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, the Oberoi-Trident hotel, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus railway station, Leopold Café, Cama Hospital and other sites. The attacks killed 166 people and injured more than 300. Nine of the attackers were killed during the operations; the sole survivor, Ajmal Kasab (Mohammad Ajmal Amir Qasab), was captured, convicted of murder and other charges, and executed in India in 2012.[2] Lashkar-e-Taiba denied responsibility; Indian and U.S. authorities attributed the attacks to the group. Pakistan later charged several individuals, including operations chief Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi; trials of senior figures including Hafiz Saeed have proceeded in absentia in India.[6][7]
- Editor's note: the statement that trials of Hafiz Saeed have proceeded in absentia in India has not been verified against the cited sources. It is kept pending a check.
At Nariman House the siege lasted until the evening of 28 November. Six civilians were killed: Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg (29, dual U.S.-Israeli), Rebbetzin Rivka Holtzberg (28, Israeli, six months pregnant), Bentzion Kruman (28, dual U.S.-Israeli), Rabbi Leibish Teitelbaum (37, American), Yocheved Orpaz (62, Israeli) and Norma Shvarzblat Rabinovich (50, Mexican). Their two-year-old son Moshe Holtzberg was rescued by his nanny Sandra Samuel. Two attackers (Nasir alias Abu Umar and Babar Imran) were also killed at the site. An Indian NSG commando, Gajender Singh Bisht, was killed during the rescue operation. The attack on the centre was widely reported as specifically directed at the Jewish/Israeli presence. BBC News reported that six Jews were killed at the centre and that Indian forces killed two gunmen there.[2][3][8]
- Editor's note: this paragraph previously cited Wikipedia, which is not an allowed source. The victims' names and ages, and the Holtzbergs' ages, are now sourced to Chabad.org, and the nanny's name to the New Indian Express. The names of the two attackers killed at the site, the commando Gajender Singh Bisht, the end time of the siege and the victims' nationalities have not yet been checked against a replacement source.
2012 Cochin expulsion
In March 2012 Indian authorities expelled Rabbi Zalman Bernstein (also referred to as Shneor Zalman Bernstein) and his wife Yaffa from Cochin / Kochi. Officials charged that he had failed to declare religious activities on his visa application and alleged attempts to convert foreigners. A local daily (Times of India) reported that the couple had been under surveillance after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, citing the high rent they paid for their house (Rs 50,000 per month), regular nighttime meetings at the property, and financial transactions. The report stated that central intelligence had received an alert about a possible covert operation by suspected Israeli agents in retaliation for the Mumbai attack and that Kerala police had tracked the couple for a year. The paper presented the meetings and rent as grounds for suspicion of espionage.
Bernstein denied the charges, stating he had been invited by the local Jewish community with the knowledge of authorities and had no connection to any Mossad or intelligence operation. Israeli consul Eyal Siso in New Delhi described the espionage allegations as “nonsense.” The couple were deported after legal challenges.[9][10]
Goa “Jews only” incident (2026)
In early September 2026 a video circulated of an Italian woman being denied entry to a café/restaurant in a Goa village. Staff told her that only Jewish people could enter, describing the premises as a prayer place for Jewish people. The woman stated that the venue was a restaurant and café (with a portrait of the Lubavitcher Rebbe) rather than a synagogue, and that it operated as private property open only to the Jewish public. The footage was widely shared, including by Tim Anderson on X under the caption “Zionists export apartheid. Italian woman can’t get a drink at a ‘Jews only’ bar in Goa, India. Religious pretext.” The establishment has been linked in reporting to the local Chabad presence in Goa.[11]
Israeli-run cafés and exclusion reports (Kasol, Dharamkot and elsewhere)
Separate from formal Chabad centres, a longer-standing pattern of complaints has concerned Israeli-owned or Israeli-frequented cafés along the Hummus Trail (especially Kasol in the Parvati Valley and Dharamkot near Dharamsala). In 2015 the Free Kasol café was the subject of a widely circulated Facebook post by a British tourist whose Indian partner was refused a menu and told the venue was “members only,” while he was served. Activists and travellers have described a hierarchy in which Indians and sometimes other non-Israelis are turned away or deprioritised at certain venues. These reports are distinct from Chabad Houses themselves but form part of the same broader discussion of Israeli tourist enclaves and access practices in India.[11][12]
Security measures at Chabad centres have included police checks of passports before entry (documented in Delhi in October 2023) and increased police presence after terror alerts.
State, business and Israel
On 18 January 2018, during his visit to India, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the Mumbai Chabad House with Moshe Holtzberg, then 11, and his nanny Sandra Samuel. He announced plans for a "Living Memorial" at Nariman House and unveiled a plaque in memory of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg. The New Indian Express described it as the first visit by any high-ranking Israeli dignitary to the Chabad House. The memorial was expected to take in the family's former rooms on the fifth floor, with a museum on the fourth floor.[13][8] Netanyahu said:
"What happened here represents the polar opposites of love and hate, the hatred perpetrated by the terrorists, but it also expressed tremendous love."[13]
Rabbi Yisroel Kozlovsky said the memorial "will inspire the belief that every individual has the ability and responsibility to make the world a better place".[13] That day Netanyahu also met about 30 Jewish community leaders in Mumbai. According to the Indian Express, the discussion covered trade and military, agricultural and cyber-security cooperation between the two countries.[13]
Timeline
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2002 | Gavriel Holtzberg and Rivka Holtzberg marry[3] |
| 2003 | The Holtzbergs establish the Chabad House in Mumbai[3] |
| 2008 | 26–29 November: Nariman House is attacked during the Mumbai attacks; six Jews are killed at the centre[2] |
| 2012 | Rabbi Zalman Bernstein is expelled from Cochin; Ajmal Kasab is executed[9][2] |
| 2014 | 26 August: the renovated Chabad House reopens under Yisroel and Chaya Kozlovsky[2] |
| 2018 | 18 January: Netanyahu visits with Moshe Holtzberg and announces the Living Memorial[8] |
| 2023 | October: police check passports at the Paharganj Chabad House in Delhi[5] |
| 2026 | September: the Goa "Jews only" video circulates[11] |
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch
- Nariman House
- Gavriel Holtzberg
- Hummus Trail
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to India
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Hummus Trail: Chabad Houses Across India, Jews of India.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Mumbai Jewish centre reopens six years after attack, BBC News, 26 August 2014. Press.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Six Holy Souls, Chabad.org, 17 November 2009. Chabad-side.
- ↑ Chabad of India / Chabad Mumbai.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Israeli jews visit Chabad House at Paharganj, Getty Images / Hindustan Times, 10 October 2023.
- ↑ Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008, Britannica.
- ↑ Mumbai Terror Attacks Fast Facts, CNN.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Israel PM in India: Netanyahu visits Chabad House with Moshe, announces plans for a ‘Living Memorial’, The New Indian Express (PTI), 18 January 2018. Press.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 India Expels Chabad Rabbi Over Alleged Attempt to Hide Conversion Efforts, Haaretz, 13 March 2012.
- ↑ 'Suspicious' Israeli couple to be deported from India, JTA, 7 February 2012.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Indians Are Not Allowed In Kasol/Goa Cafes Run By Israelis, ED Times, 30 September 2026.
- ↑ Israeli Whites-Only Cafés in India’s Himalayan Region, American Kahani.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu unveils plans for ‘Living Memorial’, The Indian Express, January 2018. Press.