Amid the deafening silence of elected officials and state leaders regarding the destruction of tefilin near the Kinneret, opposition leader MK Yitzchak Herzog broke the silence, expressing pain and outrage.

“It is shocking to see that today, in Israel in 2016, someone actually burned tefilin. The single most Jewish symbol over which Jews fought during WWII was tefilin and it is shocking to see today they are burned” he told Kikar Shabbos on Thursday, 27 Nissan, the day on which Israel observes Holocaust Remembrance Day.

He concluded “I hope and expect that Israel Police with launch an exhaustive investigation to find the perpetrators and bring them to justice. Tefilin were and will remain a symbol of Am Yisrael”.

As reported earlier, a number of bnei yeshiva were camping out near the Kinneret and when they awakened they discovered their bags had been stolen. After launching a search, the tefilin were found burned in a nearby public bathroom and some were placed in a sink that was filled with water.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)