SOUL FOOD:

The K Street Lounge in Washington D.C. is an unlikely place to meet a member of the Orthodox Jewish Chabad. But in its dim light and din of rock music, that’s were I met Motti Seligson, at a mixer that was part of the Religion Newswriters Assn. conference last September.

When told Seligson I was from Huntington Beach, he asked if I knew Aron David Berkowitz, the rabbi at Congregation Adat Israel here in town.

Berkowitz is one of roughly 4,000 Chabad “shluchim” or emissaries who live in 75 countries and most of the world’s continents.

Their mission is to reach out to every Jew, drawing them closer to one another.

The six degrees said to separate most of us in the world may be several degrees fewer for those in Chabad. So when I heard of the killings of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, at the hands of terrorists in Mumbai last month, I was sure the tragedy hit close to home for members of Chabad in this city.

Indeed, the son of Rabbi Berkowitz’s brother is married to Gavriel Holtzberg’s first cousin. A cousin of his wife, Rochel, is married to Holtzberg’s sister.

But there’s a bond beyond blood and marriage that is the strongest.

“I identify with everything they were doing,” Rochel Berkowitz said. “Though we did not know [the Holtzbergs] personally, it’s like a member of our family because they do the same things we do.”

Like her, Rivkah had a zeal for encouraging women to light Shabbos candles on Shabbat.

“The Jewish women have a commandment to bring in the Shabbat by lighting candles,” Rochel said. “Light symbolizes clarity, peace, goodness. It ushers peace into the home.”

An unmarried girl lights a single candle. A married woman lights two. Candles may be lit for children and other family members as well.

“There’s a blessing to say over [the candle]. You can pray and ask for good things to come down into your home,” Rochel said.

On the first Shabbat after Rivkah Holtzberg’s death, her family requested that women light Shabbos candles in her memory. Rochel and others made phone calls to women asking them to honor this request.

“If they haven’t been lighting Shabbat candles until now, they should perhaps make that good resolution to do it now to bring more light into the world, to bring the spiritual light which will overcome this horrible act of terrorism,” she said.

When Hanukkah begins at sundown Sunday, Rabbi Aron David Berkowitz’s Congregation Adat Israel and Rabbi Yossi Berkowitz’s Chabad of South Huntington Beach will dedicate their menorah lightings to the memory of the slain young couple and all the Mumbai victims.

The story of Hanukkah is a story of religious freedom, to which the attacks in Mumbai were an affront. Hanukkah remembers the time nearly 2,200 years ago when the Syrian Greek King Antiochus tried to force the Jews under his rule to abandon their religion.

When a successful uprising restored the practice of their faith to them, they set out to rededicate their desecrated temple. But when they did, they discovered all but a small bit of oil used to light the temple menorah, or candelabra, had been contaminated.

This remnant of undefiled oil, it’s said, miraculously burned for eight days while more oil was procured and consecrated. Now, on each day of the eight-day festival, a candle is lit on the Hanukkah menorah to symbolize this event.

“Hanu” means “they rested” and “kah” means 25, the date in the Jewish month of Kislev, on which the temple was rededicated. Hanukkah means, “We rested from our enemies.”

Its message: Light overcomes darkness. Good overcomes evil. It’s a fitting time to remember the Holtzbergs, who were regarded as “lamplighters” for devoting their lives to serving others.

A tribute to the couple will be made on the first night of Hanukkah when the first of eight menorah candles is lit at a “Laughter and Latkes” party at the synagogue on Warner Avenue. The party will feature comedian Wayne Cotter.

Chabad of West Orange County will also sponsor two public menorah lightings. One will be at 6 p.m. Monday in front of Target on the lower floor at the Westminster Mall. The other will be at 6:30 p.m. at Bella Terra on Dec. 28, the final day of Hanukkah.

A tribute to the Holtzbergs and the other victims in Mumbai will be offered at both public lightings. Members have also been asked to pledge an extra mitzvah, a good deed, to this end.

With the school’s director, Rabbi Yisroel Zavdi, the children of the Chabad Hebrew School will visit seniors living in retirement homes. The synagogue will start a long hoped-for senior program in January.

Also in January, Chabad of South Huntington Beach will finally take the next step of moving from a home location into a storefront. Congregation Adat Israel will place a permanent memorial to the Holtzbergs and other Mumbai victims in its new sanctuary, which is nearing completion.

“The only way to deal with [what happened in Mumbai] is to turn it into something positive,” said Rabbi Berkowitz. “Everyone has been motivated to expand.”

The Chabad House in Mumbai will be rebuilt and enlarged. It will be staffed again.

Mitzvah pledges as well as donations to the [Holtzberg] Family Relief Fund can be made at www.Chabadindia.org. Information about Chabad locally is available at www.chabadhb.com, or by calling (714) 846-2285.

MICHÈLE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She can be reached at [email protected].