Chabad houses serve as a kind of Israeli embassies throughout the world and the government should allocate a budget for them accordingly and take responsibility for securing them, the Chief Rabbinate Council declared on Monday in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.
| Mumbai Massacre |
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| Chabad centers in India heighten alert / Yael Levy |
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Travelers, Jewish emissaries in India coming to terms with extent of Mumbai massacre, but say plans remain largely unchanged. 'It feels as though it is our brothers that have been killed. We are trying to gather strength,' Chabad emissary in Pushkar says |
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Council members meeting for the first time since being sworn in about a month ago, adopted the proposal of Rabbi Shimon Elitov of the Binyamin Regional Council who is associated with the Chabad movement, and urged the government to act on this matter.
"Chabad houses serve as embassies for the State of Israel and atrract a great many Israelis," the rabbi said.
"A fraction of their activity can be seen during Jewish holidays, when thousands of Israelis dine there for free, he added.
The council urged the government to immediately act towards securing some 3,000 Chabad houses around the world and support them financially.
Council member Rabbi Yaakov Roje of the ZAKA rescue organization updated his fellow rabbis on the identification and rescue process of the bodies in Mumbai.
"The volunteers worked very hard to ensure that treatment of the deceased be carried out according to Halacha, despite various delays and obstacles that were put in our way by the authorities in India," Rabbi Roje said.
Rabbi Yitzhak David Grossman of Migdal Haemek spoke to the council members of his niece Rivka Holtzberg, who was killed
in the attack, and Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar spoke of the warm friendship that grew between his daughter and the deceased, while the rest of the rabbis mourned the dead.
The Chief Rabbinate Council convened on Monday for the first time in over two months since elections, as the rabbis have not been able to reach an agreement on the division of heads for the council's committees.
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