Baby Moshe marks 3rd birthday,with first haircut

The public event at Kfar Chabad,a village outside Tel Aviv,also saw Moshe get his first haircut as part of a Jewish tradition where locks of children are not trimmed until they are three. Among those who clipped the hair were Chabad rabbis from the movements headquarters in New York.

In Mumbai last November,his Indian nanny Sandra Samuel and Jackie,the Holtzbergs cook-cum-handyman,were planning a birthday party for Moshe but Rivka was not too enthused and was in favour of just a sit-down dinner. That was before 26/11.

The terror attack meant Moshes second birthday two days later went unnoticed.

He is full of life now, Sandra told The Indian Express over the phone. She had managed to flee Nariman House with Moshe the morning after the attack and has since been in Israel caring for him. No one thought he would settle down so well here. He is quite happy and doesnt seem to miss his parents. In fact,whenever he sees their pictures,he smiles. He is still a kid. Who knows how he will react when he grows up?

In the early months after 26/11,Moshe missed his parents. Sandra would try to console him by saying they were gone,in the sky,with God.

Now he goes to a playschool in the Israeli town of Afula where he lives with his maternal grandparents.