A waterfall monument inscribed with names of all the victims of 26/11 terror attack including the policemen and National Security Guards and plaques of the sites where the terrorists attacked, surrounded with lush green plants forms the rooftop memorial at the Nariman House, the Jewish center in Colaba. Rechristened as Nariman Light House, the memorial will be formally inaugurated on Monday, the tenth anniversary of the ghastly attacks on the city.
“This is the only memorial that honors all the victims of the attack. Even as the attack took place at many locations, we felt that it was one attack and the memorial should have all the names together. The water and plants are the sources of energy. We call it a living memorial”, said Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky, who heads the Nariman Light House. While the waterfall signifies the flow of life and purification, the planks of sites of the attack- Kuber boat, Taj, Oberoi-Trident, Leopold Cafe, Cama Hospital, CST and Nariman House- will serve as a reminder to the visitors about what happened on that fateful night.
The light on top of the Nariman House lit on Sunday evening.
The terrace memorial is the first phase of the museum. It will be opened for the public soon and those interested can register online. In the second phase that will be ready by end of next year, the fourth and fifth floors of the building will be designed with the theme- ‘from darkness to light’. The fifth floor is where Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka lived with their son Moshe. While Moshe was saved by his nanny, Rabbi Gavriel and Rivka were killed in the attack. “We will use this floor to show the Jewish way of life where visitors can walk through the kitchen, bedroom, and baby Moshe’s room as well. For example, very few people know that we have two sinks in the kitchen”, said Rabbi Israel adding that Moshe who was a day less than two years had miraculously come down from his crib on the fifth floor to the second floor near the bodies of his parents from where his nanny whisked him to safety.
On the fourth floor, the damage done by the bullets and grenades will be retained. The visitors will enter this floor through a fractured door as it was left after the attack. This floor will showcase the burnt apartment, walk the visitors through local and global terrorism and then lead to a dark room. The walk will conclude into an extremely brightly lit up room. “From being the place that suffered from so much darkness, this will be a beacon of light”, said Chaya Kozlovsky, Rabbi Israel’s wife.
