Sandra Samuel

Samuel is an Indian Christian who worked as a nanny for Moshe Holtzberg, the young son of Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg, who ran Mumbai’s Chabad House, also known as Nariman House.[1][3] A report published in 2008 described her as 44 years old at the time of the attack.[3]

The cited accounts provide little detail about Samuel’s life before her work with the Holtzberg family. They identify her primarily through her caregiving role and the events that brought her into public attention.[1][3]

On November 26, 2008, terrorists attacked the Chabad House in Mumbai. Gavriel and Rivka Holtzberg and four other people at the Chabad House were killed.[4][5] Moshe, then two years old, survived after Samuel carried him out of the building.[1][3]

In an account published soon after the attack, Samuel said she had gone downstairs to help the cook clean up after dinner when the attackers entered. She and the cook hid between a wall and a refrigerator; later, she heard Moshe calling for her and went upstairs despite the cook’s warning. She found him near his parents and carried him out. Samuel also said she saw a gunman shoot at her, and that Moshe’s quietness helped them escape without drawing attention.[6]

Other reports say she took refuge in a cupboard or laundry room, then emerged after hearing Moshe cry. She found him beside his parents, picked him up, and fled the building.[7][8] One account says she paused to retrieve his favorite doll while escaping and then took him out through a back alley.[9] In a later interview, Samuel explained her decision simply: “a baby is very important for me and this baby is something very precious to me,” and she said that she picked him up and ran without stopping to think.[10]

While Samuel and Moshe were still in Mumbai after the attack, Chabad representatives and the Holtzberg family appealed to Israeli authorities to let her accompany Moshe, saying she was close to him and that he was responding to her care.[11] After Moshe went to live with his grandparents, Samuel left her own family behind and followed him to Israel.[2]

Samuel continued to care for and visit Moshe as he grew up with his grandparents.[4][2] In a 2017 interview, she said she planned to return to India when he turned 18.[12] A 2018 profile reported that she lived in Jerusalem, worked at ALEH caring for children with disabilities, and visited Moshe weekly.[12] A 2015 profile likewise described her working at an institution for children with special needs and visiting Moshe once a week with gifts while he lived with his maternal grandparents in Afula.[4]

Samuel accompanied Moshe on his first return to India since the attack in January 2018. The visit included the Chabad House where his parents had been killed; Moshe, then 11, traveled with his grandparents after being invited to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit.[13] Samuel also attended Moshe’s bar mitzvah in Kfar Chabad in December 2019 with his family.[14]

In October 2022, Moshe spoke to the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee about the attack. He recalled that his nanny Sandra had put him to bed shortly before the gunfire began and said that she saved him.[5]

The American Jewish Committee presented Samuel with its Moral Courage Award at its Global Forum in Jerusalem in 2018, ten years after the Mumbai attack. The award recognized her actions during and after the attack.[1] In remarks at the forum, she said, “I believe that the love and trust shown to Moshe boy and me from all of you present today is my greatest reward.” She also thanked the Israeli government for granting her citizenship so that she could remain near him, saying, “I love this country with all my heart, as this is the holiest place for me.”[2]

Samuel’s rescue of Moshe has also appeared in accounts of the Mumbai attack and in cultural writing. A 2019 Jewish Review of Books article included her among real-life figures appearing in a novel and described her as the nanny who saved Moshe’s life during the terrorist attacks.[15] Moshe’s later public account of the rescue likewise placed Samuel’s actions at the center of his survival.[5]

Some accounts differ over details of Samuel’s identity and the attack. An INSS-hosted Jewish Telegraphic Agency report calls the nanny “Sandra Joseph,” while the American Jewish Committee and World Jewish Congress identify her as Sandra Samuel.[1][8] Reports also differ on where she hid: the JTA account says a laundry room, while a World Jewish Congress report says a cupboard.[8][7]

Reports describe Samuel’s Israeli status differently. A July 2010 Ynetnews report described temporary residential status as an initial step toward permanent citizenship, while a September 2010 Jerusalem Post account characterized her status as honorary citizenship and permanent residency.[10][16] Later AJC and Maariv accounts state that she became an Israeli citizen.[2][4]