During his Thanksgiving break, Viraj Mehta, vice president of the Indian Student Association, spent hours watching the terrorist attacks in Mumbai unfold on CNN.
According to the latest reports, as bodies were still being removed from the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel, the government was reporting that at least 174 people had died in the attacks.
The attacks impacted students and Gainesville residents with connections to India.
Mehta's parents told him they did not know anyone living in Mumbai, but their assurance didn't keep the attacks from affecting his holiday.
His house was full of family members who talked about the attacks, anxious to find out if friends who had family in Mumbai had heard from them, he said.
"It was just constant worriedness," he said. "It put a damper on the mood."
Two who died were known locally.
Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, were among those killed at the Nariman House, an orthodox Jewish center that was part of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
Rabbi Berl Goldman, the director of the Lubavitch-Chabad Jewish Student and Community Center in Gainesville, said he knew the couple and is planning to hold a memorial service Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at the center to honor the Holtzbergs and everyone else who lost their lives in the attacks.
He said Holtzberg was famous within the Chabad community and had taken in many UF students while in Mumbai.
"He was one of our bright, rising stars," Goldman said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
