“I went out to help her and realized something was blocking it. When I finally managed to open it, I noticed that someone had assembled four [heavy concrete] flowerpots in front of it to block it. Somebody had also tied a piece of rope at neck height across the frame of the door. Another piece of rope was tied across the stairwell in a separate part of the building, clearly in an attempt to cause people to trip.”
Jews Locked Inside Israeli Conservative Shul With Traps Set To Harm Them
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
Jews from several non-Orthodox congregations gathered in a Conservative synagogue in Modi’in and said Eicha last night, just as Jews did in synagogues across the world, from the most to the least Orthodox.
The Yedid Nefesh synagogue had suffered an arson attack and vandalism six years ago, but the ensuing years had passed uneventfully – until last night.
When the Tisha B’Av service ended, they found out they were trapped inside the synagogue, which had been barricaded from the outside.
A female congregant tried to open the synagogue door to leave, but it wouldn’t open.
“I went out to help her and realized something was blocking it,” a male member of the synagogue, Allon Herman, told Ha’aretz. “When I finally managed to open it, I noticed that someone had assembled four [heavy concrete] flowerpots in front of it to block it. Somebody had also tied a piece of rope at neck height across the frame of the door. Another piece of rope was tied across the stairwell in a separate part of the building, clearly in an attempt to cause people to trip.”
While it is too early to say for sure whether this latest incident was committed by haredim or Zionist Orthodox extremists or if it was merely a prank committed by local teens, there is little doubt the anti-Conservative and anti-Reform climate in the country fueled by recent actions of haredi politicians, Zionist Orthodox rabbis and by Israeli President Reuven “Ruby” Rivlin played at least some role in it.
“We believe that at least two of the perpetrators were teens. What is also clear is that this was a pre-meditated act. People don’t just walk around with rope on them,” Allon said.
Members of the congregation filed a criminal complaint about the incident with police today.
Many of the spate of recent anti-Christian and anti-Muslim hate crimes have allegedly been committed by teens and young adults from the haredi community and from the hard right-wing of the Zionist Orthodox community – including last years gruesome murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, a 16-year-old Arab boy in Jerusalem.