Nov 28, 2008 11:21 pm US/Eastern
2 Americans With Md. Ties Killed In Mumbai
Virginia Man, Teen Daughter Among U.S. Dead In Mumbai
U.S. State Dept. Taking Calls At 1-888-407-4747 For Americans Concerned About Family
RICHMOND, Va. (WJZ/AP) ―
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Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were reportedly killed in the assaults at a spiritual retreat in Mumbai, India, the Virginia-based Synchronicity Foundation revealed Nov. 28, 2008.
CBS
Reports started surfacing Friday morning of American casualties in the violence that has been plaguing Mumbai, India at the hand of gunmen for nearly three days. At least four Americans, including a Virginia father and his daughter with Maryland ties, are reportedly among the victims in India.
Alan Scherr, 58, and daughter Naomi, 13, from a Virginia community that promotes a form of meditation, were among those killed in the terrorist attacks in India, a colleague said Friday.
Scherr and his daughter were in a cafe Wednesday night in Mumbai when they were killed, said Bobbie Garvey, a spokeswoman for the Synchronicity Foundation. The State Department official confirmed Friday that two Americans killed were traveling with a group from the Synchronicity Foundation in Virginia.
"I don't think this community has fully experienced the impact of this event yet," said Garvey.
The Scherrs were among 25 foundation participants in a spiritual program in Mumbai. Four others on the mission were injured in the cafe attack in the luxury Oberoi hotel, Garvey said, including two women from Tennessee.
"We thought this was the trip of a lifetime for all of them, you know, and it was up until Wednesday, said Garvey.
The Virginia father was a Maryland native and a former college professor who lived at the Synchronicity sanctuary about 15 miles southwest of Charlottesville.
"I would call them bright stars," Garvey said of the Scherrs. "Extraordinary, bright, very positive -- examples to the world."
The Scherrs had lived at the foundation all of Naomi's life, Garvey said. Alan Scherr's wife, Kia, and her two sons did not travel with them to India.
According to the foundation's Web site, the community is led by Master Charles, a former leading disciple of Swami Paramahansa Muktananda. He is described on the Web site as "one of the most popular spiritual teachers from India to build a following the West in the 1970s." He taught a form of yoga.
"They were just finishing up their little snack. After the program, they happened to be hungry. Most of the people over there went to their rooms. They were in their rooms at the hotel when it all happened. The terrorists walked in, started shooting everywhere," said Garvey. "They would search the hospitals, they would search the morgues and other places, so we assumed the worst and assumed they were still in the cafe on the floor."
Members of the New York-based Chabad-Lubavitch ultra-Orthodox Jewish movement learned Friday that two of their members perished at its local headquarters in Mumbai, which was one of 10 sites attacked.
A spokesman, Rabbi Zalman Schmotkin, says Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka, have been killed in Mumbai. They ran the movement's local headquarters, which was one of 10 sites attacked.
The couple's 18-month-old son, Moshe Holtzberg, was smuggled out of the center by an employee, and is now with his grandparents.The bodies of five hostages were found by Indian commandoes early Friday night.
The Holtzbergs arrived in Mumbai in 2003 to serve the local Jewish community. The two ran a synagogue, offering religious instruction and helping people dealing with drug addiction and poverty, Kotlarsky said.
Authorities said three other hostages and two gunmen were also killed but they weren't immediately identified.
For the past two days, the five-story headquarters of Chabad in Mumbai has been besieged by terrorists, with Indian commandos rappeling from helicopters in an attempt to root them out. A series of explosions and fire rocked the building and blew giant holes in the wall.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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