Israeli President Reuven Rivlin. Photo: Twitter.

JNS.org – In one of his final acts on a week-long state visit to India, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin paid respects to the victims of the bloody 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Rivlin first visited the local Chabad House, where six people were murdered, including emissaries Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. The president lit a candle in memory of the victims and was told stories about those killed. He also toured the bedroom that once belonged to the Holtzbergs’ son, Moshe, the only room of the Jewish center that was not renovated after the devastating attack.

Rivlin spoke about his recent meeting with Moshe, now 10, who was rescued by the family’s Indian nanny, Sandra Samuel, and lives in Israel with his grandparents.

“When I saw Moshe,” Rivlin said, “I could not help but think ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ (the People of Israel Live). And today here too, in this Chabad House which offers a warm welcome to Jews from around the world every day without rest, I think the same thing again: the People of Israel live. The free world lives, and we will overcome terror.”

The president also visited Taj Palace Hotel, a second location targeted in November 2008, where 31 people were killed. Rivlin laid a wreath at a memorial at the resort and said, “Like Israelis, Indians are sadly no strangers to the threat and the reality of modern global terrorism. And let us be clear, terror is terror is terror — wherever it strikes. Hatred, fundamentalism, extremism and incitement, they equal one thing: terror.”

The Mumbai attacks, which targeted seven locations and killed 164 people, were carried out by an Islamic terrorist group from Pakistan.