Pune bakery bombing won’t scare Israelis, Jews away from India: Chabad House owner

PUNE - The terror strike at the German Bakery in Pune has rekindled concern for the safety of Israelis and Jews in the country, but the community members have said that the bombing will not scare them away.

The bombing on Saturday, which claimed nine lives, including two foreigners and injured about 60 others, is being seen as the first big attack on the country since the 26/11, 2008 Mumbai massacre.

Like the Mumbai massacre, which included an assault on the Nariman House, the Pune bombing may also have been intended to include the small Chabad House just down the street from the bombed bakery.

However, the community members praised the local police for providing constant protection to the center “at their own initiative.”

“The head of police for our district visited us a few minutes ago, suggesting that it’s possible that the attackers were deterred by the policemen at our gate,” The Jerusalem Post quoted Rachel Kupchik, who has run the Pune Chabad House together with her husband, Rabbi Bezalel Kupchik, as saying.

She insisted that the bombing will not scare them away, and said: “We didn’t come here to find a comfortable career. We came with our 10 children, leaving a community and a beautiful home in Safed, to be emissaries of the rebbe [the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson].”

“A terrorist attack can happen anywhere, but our sense of security is strong and intact. The people here are good. I am as scared to walk around here as I am in Tel Aviv. Our children walk the streets freely,” she added.

Kupchik also insisted that India is a country with absolutely no anti-Semitism.

“There never was, and there isn’t now. Unlike in some European countries, where you have to hide the fact that you’re Jewish, here in India being Jewish generates respect,” Kupchik said. (ANI)