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Comments (0)A U.S. citizen of Pakistan origin allegedly posed as a Jew in order to enter the Mumbai Chabad center and prepare for last year’s attack.
David Coleman Headley, 49, was arrested last month in Chicago as he tried to make his way to Pakistan via Philadelphia.
U.S. and Indian authorities have been investigating Headley. Over the weekend, the Indian Nation Investigating Agency raided several places in Mumbai in search of evidence.
Indian security sources believe Headley cased the Chabad center, known as the Nariman House, for the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is believed to be responsible for the attacks.
Indian investigators found that Headley visited all 10 Mumbai locations that were attacked last November, according to the Chinese news agency Xinhua.
The news agency reported that Headley visited the Mumbai Chabad in July 2008. When he was arrested last month in the United States, he had a book in his possession titled “To Pray as a Jew,” the Calcutta Telegraph reported.
Chabad Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were among the six victims killed at the Nariman House. A total of 179 people were killed in the Mumbai terror attacks, which occurred over a three-day period.
Israeli Film Wins in Rome
A film about same-sex love in Jerusalem’s haredi community took first prize at a film festival in Rome.
“Eyes Wide Open,” an Israeli-German-French co-production, won the main Eros and Psyche prize at the 15th MedFilm festival in Rome.
The first feature-length film by Israeli director Haim Tabakman, “Eyes Wide Open” recounts the doomed attraction between a kosher butcher and a young outsider in Jerusalem’s fervently Orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood. Medfilm, held Nov. 7-14, showcased 130 films from countries all over the Mediterranean region.
“Eyes Wide Open” won the grand prize last month at the 36th Ghent International Film Festival in Belgium.
Hungarian Jewish Marker Restored
Hungary’s president dedicated a restored memorial plaque for the late chief rabbi of Makó, which had been smashed in an anti-Semitic attack.
President László Sólyom on Wednesday also paid tribute to Israeli descendents of Makó‘s Jews who have retained their Hungarian culture.
Ármin Kecskeméti (1874-1944), a prominent intellectual, served the once vibrant Jewish community of the south Hungarian city for 46 years until his death in the Holocaust. The city erected the plaque and named a street in his honor after the collapse of communist rule in 1989.
The memorial was destroyed late last month and its setting defaced with the message: “What six million? Lying swine!” A single culprit was arrested shortly afterward and convicted of a drunken night-time assault. He was sentenced last week to 20 days of community service.
National and local community leaders as well as survivors of the rabbi’s family were present at a wreath-laying ceremony. Sólyom said he wanted to send a message about the importance of the intertwined history of the Jewish and Hungarian communities of Makó.
Sociologist Zsuzsa Ferge, a granddaughter of the rabbi, blamed the outrage on the recent upsurge of neo-Nazi organizations and a prevailing ignorance over the history of the Holocaust.