Ultra-Orthodox man shoved to the ground by another man on Tel Aviv street
Victim was out encouraging passersby to lay tefillin; UTJ Knesset member calls for attacker to be charged with hate crime
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleMichael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
An ultra-Orthodox man was violently pushed to the ground by another man in Tel Aviv on Friday, apparently when out on the street to encourage passersby to lay tefillin.
Footage of the incident uploaded to Twitter on Sunday showed Levi Blau and two other men — all members of the Chabad movement — walking down Allenby Street when the assailant knocked Blau to the pavement in an apparently unprovoked attack.
Blau told Channel 12 news that he and his companions were walking to the corner of Allenby and Ben Yehuda Street to encourage people to take part in the Jewish ritual when he was attacked by a stranger.
Members of Chabad regularly venture out into public areas to motivate people to wrap phylacteries.
“I never met him,” he said. “I was on the floor for two minutes, completely shocked,” he added.
Blau said that authorities were investigating the incident after he submitted a complaint to the police on Sunday.
אנטישמיות: הסרטון המזעזע הזה, מיום שישי האחרון, ברחוב אלנבי בתל אביב.
סיימתי עכשיו שיחה עם הבחור שהותקף: "אנחנו כהרגלנו, עושים 'מבצע תפילין' בתל אביב כמידי שבוע, הולכים על שדרת רחוב אלנבי, כשלפתע מגיע אדם מולנו, צועק 'חרדים' ודוחף אותי בכוח לרצפה".
מה דעתכם? pic.twitter.com/meGtGztXx2
— לוי נוישטט – levi noishtat (@levi_noishtat) September 4, 2022
His father told the Walla news site that the attacker “hissed something against Haredim” during the assault.
Levi Noishtat, the man who uploaded the video, labeled the attack “antisemitic.”
In response to the incident, MK Yisrael Eichler of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party said: “Just as we warned, the hate and incitement of politicians like [Finance Minister Avigdor] Liberman and others does not stop at verbal violence. In the moment of truth, it turns into actual physical violence.”
Liberman, who in the past has said that ultra-Orthodox schools teach “idleness,” and that he would dump Haredi political parties and then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu into a “landfill,” is regularly accused by ultra-Orthodox and some right-wing lawmakers of inciting hatred against the community.
Eichler called on the police to arrest the assailant and charge him with a hate crime.
The Times of Israel Community.