KFAR CHABAD, Israel (CNN) -- Thousands of mourners and emissaries from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish Chabad movement poured into an Israeli village Tuesday for the funerals of a rabbi and his wife killed last week in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish men and boys pray next to the bodies of Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka.
Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka were killed after armed gunmen stormed their house in Mumbai. After the funeral in Kfar Chabad, a village of 900 families just outside Tel Aviv, their bodies will be taken to Jerusalem for burial on the Mount of Olives.
Three former Israeli prime ministers were at the funeral: Ehud Barak, who is now the defense minister; Shimon Peres, currently the Israeli president; and Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud Party.
The rabbi and his wife lived and worked at Mumbai's Chabad House, which served as both a Jewish center and a home.
The couple had two children, one of whom was in the house when terrorists stormed in. A woman who worked as a nanny and cook at the house managed to escape with the 2-year-old boy, Moshe. Watch report about nanny saving infant
The couple's other son was not in Mumbai at the time, according to Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky, chairman of the educational and social services arms of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The child has Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease, The Associated Press reports.
In an emotional scene before flying from India to Israel on Monday, the boy repeatedly cried for his mother at a memorial ceremony at a Mumbai synagogue.
His cries were played repeatedly on Israeli TV stations. "You don't have a mother who will hug you and kiss you," Rabbi Kotlarsky said, adding that the community would take care of the boy, AP said. "You are the child of all of Israel."
The only other surviving member of the family, Moshe's brother, has Tay-Sachs, a terminal genetic disease, and is institutionalized in Israel. The Holtzbergs' eldest son died of the disease.
The Holtzbergs went to Mumbai five years ago to serve the city's small Jewish community and the thousands of Israeli visitors and business people who frequent the area, according to Chabad.org, the ultra-Orthodox group's Web site.
About 5,000 Jews live in India, according to the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. About 3,000 of them live in Mumbai, The Jewish Press reported.
The Holtzbergs operated a synagogue and taught Torah classes. The rabbi also conducted weddings for local Jewish couples.
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