Jewish and Indian Communities Join to Mark 5th Anniversary of Mumbai Attacks

The fifth anniversary of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks for the most part, appears to have passed somberly and unobtrusively. In New York City, a motley group assembled Nov. 26 for a poignant ceremony that included lighting 12 candles symbolizing the 12 sites that witnessed the gruesome attacks. In what may be described as a milestone in the annals of urban terror, more than 160 people were killed and a city of more than 12 million was held hostage for nearly four days by members of the Pakistani group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.

Organized by the American India Public Affairs Committee in conjunction with the Jewish American Committee Asia Pacific Region and the Hindu Temple Society of North America, the event was attended by Consul General of Israel in New York Ido Aharoni, Consul General of India in New York Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay and members of the Jewish and Indian-American community.

In his address Ambassador Aharoni thanked the Indian government and people for extending all the help to Israel in the aftermath of the attacks in which five Israeli citizens were killed, including Rabbi Gavriel and Rivkah Holtzberg, directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Mumbai. Saying that the Mumbai attacks have brought India and Israel together, Aharoni made oblique criticism of the recent deal between Iran and the Five-plus-One countries that include the United States. He said it is important to understand the motivation of any “rogue regime” or terrorist group before entering into an agreement. It may be also an allusion to possible Israeli opposition to India normalizing its oil imports from Iran as part of the partial lifting of international sanctions on the Tehran regime.

In his seemingly philosophic remarks, Ambassador Mulay lamented how humanity seems to move away from “basic tenets that should govern human lives” and accord “dignity and respect to every human life.” While condemning “people amongst us who do not value life” Mulay rhetorically, if not speciously, claimed that the word terrorism is a “gift of the 21st century.” He wondered if “this particular phrase was used in the 19th century or early 20th century.” Ironically, the word terrorism was first used to describe the actions of the Jewish group called Sicarii that fought against Roman rule in 1st century A.D., and in the modern era, terrorism was rampant during late 19th century during the campaigns of the Russian anarchists. In the early 20th century, the First World War was triggered by a Serbian terrorist’s assassination of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria.

Underscoring the fact that terrorism has no caste, religion or nationality, Mulay said that “we come together in a stronger and more determined manner to fight terrorism so that we do not hand over this phrase to the future generations.” He argued that we must fight terrorism together and “delete the word from our vocabulary.”

In closing, Ambassador Mulay complimented the work of the American Jewish Committee and promised to work closely with it to promote relations with Israel and India and between the Indian and Jewish communities. He said he welcomed “all kinds of cooperation” from Jewish organizations. The Indian-American community is still “an underperforming community” in terms of promoting India’s interests, Mulay said urging it to learn from the Jewish American community.

Notable among those who attended the event were David Harris, executive director of AJC, New Jersey Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh, publisher of News India Times and recipient of India’s Padma Shri award, Jagdish Sewhani, president of American India Public Affairs Committee, and Dr. Uma Mysorekar, president of the Hindu Temple Society of North America. In his remarks Sewhani highlighted and condemned the complicity of Pakistan in the Mumbai attacks and urged Islamabad to punish the terrorists who orchestrated the attacks. Mysorekar said that homage needed to be paid not only to the victims of the Mumbai attacks, but to victims of terrorism all over the world.