Haredi extremists attack Beit Shemesh mayor and his family, overturn his car
Assailants injure Shmuel Greenberg’s 19-year-old son; video shows armored police rushing mayor from scene as mob shouting ‘Nazi’ chases him
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Ultra-Orthodox extremists late Wednesday attacked Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg and his family, overturning the mayor’s car and injuring his 19-year-old son.
In a statement, the municipality said that Greenberg, a member of the Haredi Degel Hatorah party, “was attacked by extremists while leaving a family celebration.”
“His vehicle was smashed and vandalized, but the mayor and his family were rescued from the scene. The mayor’s son required medical treatment. Mayor Greenberg trusts the Israel Police to bring the lawbreakers to justice,” his office said.
Video from the scene showed black-clad Hasidic Jews rocking the vehicle back and forth while someone screamed in the background.
Another clip showed the mayor, wearing a helmet, being rushed out of a building by armored police as a baying mob chased him amid shouts of “Nazi.” He was then placed in another car and rushed from the scene.
“Nothing will deter me. I don’t intent to surrender to thuggery,” Greenberg later told the Ynet news site.
הזוי: קבוצת קיצונים יצרה הערב אנרכיה ברחובות בית שמש, כאשר במהלך מחאה סוערת הפכו את רכבו של ראש העיר. תושבים מזועזעים מתיעוד האירוע וקוראים למשטרה לפעול ביד קשה נגד המתפרעים ולעצור את המעורבים.
???? צילום: הפרגוד מקומי בית שמש pic.twitter.com/Rp1m91DPqz— ישראל כהן (@Israelcohen911) March 19, 2025
The Haaretz daily linked the attack to the municipality’s recent demolition of a synagogue linked to an extremist sect that violated building codes.
The incident Wednesday night was far from the first mob attack against a mayor of Beit Shemesh.
In August 2023, in the second attack in less than two months, dozens of extremists rioted outside a local school while then-mayor Aliza Bloch was touring the building. The rioters hurled objects, started a fire and vandalized her car — effectively holding her hostage for nearly two hours until she was rescued by police.
Dramatic footage of Beit Shemesh Mayor Shmuel Greenberg being rescued by police from an ultra-Orthodox mob screaming "Nazi" at him this evening. The mayor's car was overturned pic.twitter.com/761DW7K4KF
— Sam Sokol (@SamuelSokol) March 19, 2025
While violence has decreased significantly in recent years, extremists have long sought to forcibly impose their way of life on residents, posting modesty signs, tearing down Israeli flags and burning down a cellphone store in the moderate Haredi neighborhood of Ramat Beit Shemesh Alef last year.
MK Goldknopf denounces ‘violent among us’
Yitzhak Goldknopf, who leads the United Torah Judaism party, of which Greenberg’s Degel HaTorah faction is a part, posted on social media Thursday: “I spoke this morning with the mayor of Beit Shemesh, my friend Shmuel Greenberg, and encouraged him in light of the violent attack he experienced. We must denounce the extremists and the violent among us.”
Also condemning the incident was Matan Katzman, mayor of the town of Even Yehuda, south of Netanya. “The incident is serious and requires a strong response,” he wrote on X. “We must all condemn the violence against [Greenberg] in the strongest possible terms and act to ensure that such incidents do not happen again.”
The Times of Israel Community.