Police have arrested a suspect in connection with an attack on a Lubavitcher Bochur in Tel Aviv last week which garnered significant attention on social media.
Bochur Levi Blau was on his way to mivtza Tefillin in central Tel Aviv when he was assaulted and knocked to the ground by a man shouting ‘charedim.’ “It was traumatic, but it isn’t going to influence anything,” Blau says.
The incident, which was filmed by closed circuit television, drew condemnations from political figures, with footage of the assault going viral.
On Tuesday, a 26-year-old resident of the central Israeli city of Pardes Chana was arrested for the assault.
In an interview with Israel’s 103FM Radio Blau later related that “We were on a way to a mivtza Tefillin which we do weekly, walking on Allenby Street when a man confronted us, screamed “chareidim” and pushed me to the floor.”
“We hadn’t even asked that person if he wanted to lay tefillin, because we were on our way to someone,” Blau recalled. “Suddenly, out of nowhere, it happened. It was really terrifying. I saw him really concentrate and then send me flying.”
“We were just in shock. You can see in the video clip, I was on the floor for two minutes, also the person who was next to me. We just looked. We were in shock. From the shock, we continued walking to lay tefillin, and suddenly after a minute I said, ‘It could be that this was an attack just now.’
“This was traumatic, but it isn’t going to influence anything,” Blau emphasized. “We are going to go every Friday to the same place, to the same people, we will do it twofold. We are here, the whole yeshiva, 200 people, doing this every Friday. We won’t stop, and we will even increase.”
