Renovation row: Nariman House placed in court receiver’s custody

Nariman House at Colaba, where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka were killed during the November 26, 2008, terror attacks, is in the court receiver’s custody following a dispute between two factions of the Jewish community.

Nariman House at Colaba, where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka were killed during the November 26, 2008, terror attacks, is in the court receiver’s custody following a dispute between two factions of the Jewish community.

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The second anniversary of the terror attacks is just over a month away.

The dispute between Gavriel’s parents, Nachman and Freida Holtzberg, and Rabbi J Kantor reached the City Civil and Sessions Court, which directed the receiver to take over the property.

A complaint was filed by Kantor seeking a stay on the renovation of Nariman House undertaken by Nachman and Freida. A representative of the couple said the building was owned by the Chabad India Trust, founded and run by Gavriel till his death.

“Gavriles’s son, Moshe [who survived the attacks], and his parents have a right to rebuild Nariman House,” said a statement issued by the representative.

He said the renovation work was undertaken by the trust set up by Gavriel and Rivka in 2005.

The New York-headquartered Chabad Lubavitch organisation had named Rabbi Yosef Kantor as its official “responsible for the rebuilding effort in Mumbai”.

The official Chabad Mumbai Relief Fund had named Rivka’s father Rabbi Shimon Rosenberg as well as Kantor, alongside others, in its Fund Oversight Committee. The BMC issued a stop-work notice following the dispute.