Orthodox use Web for Mumbai news

JERUSALEM | Bloody images and screaming headlines of the tragedy at Chabad House in Mumbai have drawn an unprecedented number of visitors to usually low-key Jewish ultra-Orthodox Web sites.

The events in India have highlighted the Web’s growing role in the reclusive ultra-Orthodox community, which had long shunned the Internet as a potential threat to its traditional way of life.

Some Web sites have crashed as readers sought updates on the attacks that left 172 people dead, most of them Indians, but including six Jews killed in the cultural and outreach center run by Chabad, one of the world’s largest Jewish religious movements.

The couple who ran the cultural center, Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were among those killed by their captors as commandos stormed the building to rescue them Friday.

Dozens of Chabad Web sites based in Israel, the United States and other countries have posted near real-time news, pictures and videos of the attack and the repatriation of the victims’ bodies.

Chabad webmasters say the coverage has drawn hundreds of online comments.

“We have had unprecedented exposure in recent days. The entire world has visited our Web sites,” said Menachem Mandel, a spokesman for Chabad’s headquarters in Israel.

Members of the ultra-Orthodox community expect ratings to reach a peak during Tuesday’s funeral ceremonies, which were to be broadcast online.

Headlines on all the Chabad Web sites screamed horror as the standoff at the Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) building unfolded and its extent was revealed to the world.

Pictures of the bullet-riddled and blood-splattered walls and synagogue of the Jewish center quickly made their way to the home pages of the sites.

The horror gradually gave way to shock and disbelief after the identity of the victims - four Israelis, one U.S. citizen and one Mexican citizen - were revealed.

“What has happened here?!” was splashed across the Chabad Web site (www.col.org.il).

“Why?” cried a headline on www.chabad770.org against the backdrop of a blood-soaked floor of the cultural center in Nariman House, one of several sites targeted by the Islamic militants.

A video clip in memory of the victims featuring a religious festival at the Mumbai center became so visited that the Chabad site crashed for several hours.

Prayers and lessons by Chabad rabbis have drawn dozens of responses from readers who posted their thoughts and condolences to the victims’ families.

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