I didn't know Rivka Holtzberg . . .

but I think I would have liked to. She was a mother, just like me. She had a little boy, just like me. She was six months pregnant with her fourth child, just like I once was. She was probably very much like most other mothers of young children I've known since becoming a parent myself nearly nine years ago -- eager to talk about her kids, pregnancy and childbirth, the ups and downs of managing a family with a little one underfoot, the amazing things little children do and say. She had already lost one son to a rare blood disorder and another son was back in Israel in critical condition with the same problem, so her heart was likely torn between the joy of an impending birth and the anxiety that comes from mothering a child with special needs.

Rivka Holtzberg will never have those conversations again nor will her little boys ever know their brother or sister.

Rivka, 28, was tortured and killed along with her husband and many others by Muslim extremists in Mumbai the week of Thanksgiving.

Some were killed because of their real or perceived ties to the West. But Rivka and her rabbi husband were likely killed because they were Jewish.

The story was already bad enough to me, but today a photo of little Moshe Holtzberg -- now orphaned in the name of Allah -- was released. It shows a curly headed toddler clutching a miniature basketball, his face contorted in the wail only a broken heart can inspire. The accompanying story says he repeatedly called his mother's name even as she was being eulogized in Mumbai and his cries eloquently underscored the barbarity of the attacks. The man holding him in the photo is an Indian, his relationship to the child is not explained in the photo caption, and his face is a mixture of resignation and sadness.

It's hard to hold on to a struggling crying child. I know, I've done it in restaurants, church services, the dentist's office. It takes strength and patience that even the most dedicated parent finds hard to come by at times. How much harder it must be when your own heart is also heavy!

Who could stand to hear the cries of a child whose singlemost desire -- to see his mother or father again -- cannot be met?

The terrorist thug who survived should be forced to listen to an audiotape of Moshe Holtzberg's broken heart 24 hours a day for the rest of his life. That might prove to be a punishment much more torturous than death.