Police here and in other cities were preparing today for the possibility of more demonstrations by Orthodox zealots to protest the sentences pronounced by a Tel Aviv district court yesterday on two yeshiva students, Israel Brand and Shmuel Wiesenstern, convicted of fire-bombing the Eros shop in Tel Aviv.
Several hundred yeshiva students demonstrated last night in B’nai Iraq, a religious township near Tel Aviv. Police detained two persons and dispersed the rest after the students blocked traffic and lit a bonfire in the street. Police arrested three persons in the Mea Shearim quarter Saturday night after a street celebration to mark the end of Simchat Torah turned into a violent demonstration for the convicted students.
Brand, 19; drew an 18-month sentence and an additional 18-month deferred sentence. Wiesenstern, 19, was sentenced to one year plus a one year suspended sentence. The court said it understood the moral reasons that motivated the youths to set fire to the shop that sells erotica but that their reasons did not justify arson.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
