Split in ultra-Orthodox sect turns violent as leading rabbi attacked

Rabbi Aharon Yehuda Leib Shteinman, the 99-year-old head of the Lithuanian ultra-Orthodox community, was attacked in his home on Wednesday morning, allegedly due to divisions within the haredi public over the local election races on Tuesday.

A 28-year-old man, a resident of Kiryat Sefer in Modiin Ilit, has been arrested over the attack. The man allegedly arrived at Shteinman's home in Bnei Brak, which is usually unlocked, and pushed and shook the elderly rabbi, and then tried to drag him from his bed to the floor. Two other rabbis who had been studying with Shteinman managed to grab the man and call the police, who arrived and arrested him.

Shteinman was not seriously injured, but because he is almost 100 years old and especially frail, a doctor was summoned to examine him.

Associates said that "even if his health is intact, his spirits are low. He is silent most of the day and is taking this whole ordeal very hard, certainly seeing as how this was apparently related to disagreements about the elections."

The attacker appeared for a remand hearing on Wednesday in the Magistrates' Court. A judge extended his remand and ordered that he undergo a psychiatric evaluation.

The suspect's attorney, Carmela Shriki, said the attack was indeed related to the elections, which saw an especially intense battle between the main Lithuanian haredi stream, headed by Shteinman from Bnei Brak, and an opposing Lithuanian haredi stream led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach from Jerusalem.

Officials in the United Torah Judaism political party said the battles surrounding the election race and the harsh words that were written in recent months led to the violent attack on Shteinman.

The incident has spurred UTJ to examine the option of holding a large protest rally.

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