New Delhi  - Only a handful of people joined Friday prayers at the quiet Judah Hyam Synagogue in New Delhi, with many opting to remain home, shocked over their community being targeted by terrorists in Mumbai.

The centre of the Chabad Lubavitch, an ultra-orthodox Jewish organization in south Mumbai, was the scene of the first attack on Jews in India in centuries - the only previously known case of anti-Semitism being the 16th-century inquisition by Portuguese colonialists in the south-western state of Goa.

According to investigators, the Muslim militants who took over the Jewish centre on the night of November 26, tortured and killed six Jews including four Israelis, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his wife Rivka, before they were shot dead by Indian commandos.

The lone terrorist captured alive revealed that a key mission of the group belonging to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba outfit was to target the Chabad centre to avenge "Israeli atrocities" against the Palestinians.

The massacre has sent shockwaves through the miniscule community of 5,000 Jews - in the majority Hindu nation of 1.1 billion - of whom nearly 85 per cent live in Mumbai.

A majority of Jews in India belong to the group known as the Bene Israel who claim to descend from Jewish families shipwrecked on a shore near Mumbai some 2,100 years ago.

They adopted the local language, dress and cuisine and became well-integrated in the Indian society but their numbers fell from an estimated 30,000 after the creation of Israel in 1948. Today, most members of the community are employed in government jobs, run businesses or are artists and poets.

The savage attack opened urgent discussions within the community over issues related with security. But the community leaders are maintaining a low-profile and avoid the media.

"These are the most troubled times for Jews in India," a community elder in Mumbai said, requesting anonymity. "In fact, we had never felt the distinction between being Indians and Jews till they (terrorists) targeted us," he said by telephone.

"The Chabad centres in other cities have received threats, so we're very anxious about the safety of our community," he said adding "For the first time in my life I see such insecurity in our people."

Community leaders are discussing upgrading security at the synagogues and other Jewish institutions in a way that it does not get these facilities into the limelight. They planned to deploy security outside temples and may approach local authorities to requisition police for protection.

The Judah Hyam Synagogue wore a grim look as only eight of the regular 50 people attended the Friday prayers and recited Psalms in the memory of those killed in the Mumbai carnage.

"The Indian Jewish identity is the only one which doesn't have any association with persecution. But this is the first time that we've been made to feel like Jews," said Rabbi Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, a Bene Israel Jew who heads the Jewish community in Delhi.

"But though Israel is in our hearts, India is in our blood. The upside is that the episode will unite us stronger as a community," Malekar said.

Some Bene Israelis in the gathering said they never believed they could come under an attack since they lived in traditional Muslim neighbourhoods in Mumbai in peace for long years.

Mumbai student Neena David was disturbed, saying the attack had made the community a soft target. "We never needed security for ourselves but now no place is safe. I have to think twice before venturing out in my own city," she said.

But the developments may not adversely affect the annual flow of over 40,000 Israeli tourists into India, among their favourite destinations, especially young backpackers who travel after their military conscription.

"There's hardly any place left in this world which has not been dented by terrorism. The attack on the Jewish hub in Mumbai is very unfortunate and it has definitely affected me," a backpacker, Isaac Manuel who returned to Delhi from a sojourn in northern hill resort, told the IANS news agency.

"But that doesn't mean that one stops visiting India, or for that matter any other place in the world which has been a victim of terrorism," he said. (dpa)