Were it not for a wedding function at Mumbai’s Oberoi Trident Hotel last month, diamond industry professionals Toni Nagel of the United Kingdom and Marc Schwalb of Belgium might not have made it back home before the conclusion of India’s worst terror attack. The two Jewish survivors were among an estimated 250 people rescued by security services at the Oberoi before a final assault on the Chabad-Lubavitch center where Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and six others died.
Schwalb had actually had dinner at the Chabad House five days before a team of Islamist terrorists held a series of tourist destinations and city buildings hostage for more than 60 hours. Almost 160 people perished in the attacks; more than 294 were injured.