Thousands of black-garbed observant Jews, mostly members of the Hassidic Gur Sect, attended a memorial service Tuesday for the prayer books and other holy objects desecrated by unknown persons, presumably anti-religious secular Jews, at a Gur yeshiva in the Ramat Hehayal quarter of Tel Aviv last week.
The crowd, estimated at about 10,000, then marched from the yeshiva to the Kiryat Shaul cemetery where the remains of the torn objects, packed in clay jars, were buried in accordance with traditional rites.
Police presume that the attack on the Gur yeshiva and the arson at another synagogue in the Tel Aviv area, as well as anti-religious slogans painted on walls, were carried out by secular Jews in response to the defacing of posters and the burning of bus shelters by observant Jews protesting at what they term obscene pictures of scantily-clad women advertising beachwear.
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.