According to a worrying report released on Tuesday by the Tel Aviv Religious Council, the Neillah tefillah at Dizengoff Square was not the only one to experience violent and unsettling attacks on Yom Kippur.
The report claims that 18 minyanim in Tel Aviv were attacked, including minyanim that didn’t have a mechitzah and were held within shuls rather than in open spaces.
Some of the mispallelim said that it was intentional for men to sit close to ladies and vice versa. While participating in the Yom Kippur tefillah, protesters yelled at other mispallelim, “Nazis, child murderers.
“At one minyan, protesters showed up at the chazan’s booth in bathing suits only.
The other protestors chuckled as a protester asked them to “sic” their dogs on the mispallelim during another minyan.
After making the request to toss the siddurim into the fountain, a different woman started knocking them off the table. Protesters demolished a mechitzah that was built with permission during a minyan that was held in a shul in Ramat Aviv Gimmel.
It should be highlighted that some of the minyanim that protesters disrupted were entirely legal and had acquired permission from the town. The report claims that the demonstrators engaged in “yelling, women dancing, equipment destruction, not allowing the minyan to begin, and shouting “Nazis and child killers.”
According to the report, 500 people took part in the protests overall. In at least half of the events, the protesters were totally successful in stopping the tefillos from happening, while the local officials did little to stop the disturbances.
Merav Michaeli, chairwoman of the Labor Party, referred to the Yom Kippur demonstrators as “heroes.” Positively, and in the spirit of Yom Tov joy, the anti-religious demonstrations sparked a “teshuvah backlash” among secular Israelis that will b’ezras Hashem keep expanding.
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