The attack on the Jewish center was the last piece put together by Lashkar-e-Taiba and the subject of the most heated debates within the group and its affiliates, according to Adrian Levy, co-author of “The Siege,” a book about the attacks, who interviewed Lashkar cadres and military sources in Pakistan.

The Lashkar leaders most closely associated with the Pakistani government worried that attacking the Jewish center would earn the enmity of the United States, which had largely ignored the group. But others wanted to expand the group’s mission beyond attacking India to attract support from the larger jihadist community, and attacking Jews did that, Mr. Levy said. The militants were eventually told by trainers that “the lives of Jews were worth 50 times those of non-Jews,” according to the Indian police.

The two teenage militants who attacked the Jewish Center, also known as Nariman House, were among the last to be killed by Indian commandos in part because the house is in a crowded alley whose residents refused evacuation. Commandos eventually dropped into the house from a helicopter, and one Indian commando was killed in the raid.

Rabbis of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement said that the center never closed but simply moved to a series of temporary locations. A Shabbat dinner was served the night of the commando raid in 2008 and has been served every Friday since, they said. There are more than 4,000 such centers in 80 countries, including nearly 1,000 in cities throughout North America.

Rabbi Israel Kozlovsky and his wife, Chaya, are the group’s current representatives in Mumbai. The center hosts local Jews, expatriate executives, traveling businessmen and backpackers who want a place to pray, study or eat a kosher meal.

Rabbi Kozlovsky said that the 2008 attack did not deter him from moving to India from Israel. He pointed out that the attackers were all Pakistanis, and he said that India had far less overt anti-Semitism than Europe. India has the world’s second-largest Muslim population, and while radical Islam is rare here, there are signs that its presence may be growing.

Rabbi Kotlarsky, a bear of a man with a long white beard, said the reopening was a deeply emotional moment for him because he had sent Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife to India and counseled them weekly.

“We are not going to be intimidated by acts of terror,” Rabbi Kotlarsky said, his voice rising. “It will only spur us to spread more light and more kindness and goodness in the world.”