Fifteen ultra-Orthodox men were arrested here yesterday in the wake of a large demonstration, including prayers in the open air, against the operation of an industrial exhibition in Haifa on the Sabbath. There was no violence during the arrest or at the earlier demonstration.
A crowd estimated at between 15,000 to 20,000 worshippers in their prayer shawls, headed by both Chief Rabbis Isaac Halevi Herzog and Itzhak Nissim, chanted their Sabbath prayers in an open air meeting. The synagogues were closed in protest against the Haifa exhibition. After the prayers, the Chief Rabbis reopened the synagogues. The bulk of the crowd demonstrated on the main street of the city, then quietly dispersed.
In Tel Aviv, several thousand religious demonstrators participated in a mass open-air prayer meeting opposite the Great Synagogue here yesterday, in protest against the Haifa industrial exhibition. Police cordoned off the entire district and diverted traffic around it to prevent any provocation. Many rabbis joined in the demonstration, and their followers danced in the streets and sang Chassidic songs.
Haifa itself was quiet, as many thousands flocked to the exhibition site. In the synagogues there, rabbis preached against the exhibition. The quiet was in sharp contrast to last week’s near-riot when religious demonstrators attempted to break through a police cordon at the site. Twenty-eight persons, 22 of them policemen, were injured in that attempt.
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