Party takes the cake for causing Shabbat disturbance

Several worshipers said the party-goers had been making too much noise and had disturbed their prayers and desecrated the Sabbath.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY
A furious religious conflict has broken out in Ramat Hasharon because of a children's birthday party held on a recent Saturday morning at a local community center, reports www.local.co.il. Religious residents, who were praying at a synagogue inside the Kiryat Hatze'irim community center, were infuriated when music and noise from the party began ringing out from another part of the center and disturbing their worship. According to the report, some of the worshippers went to the party and began verbally abusing the people there, calling them "Nazis" and saying the children would be "judged harshly" for desecrating the Sabbath. Some of the adults at the party said they had not wanted to inflame matters further and so had not responded to the abuse. "They behaved very crudely," one parent said. "They cursed us and really frightened the little children." Several of the worshipers said the party-goers had been making too much noise and had disturbed their prayers and desecrated the Sabbath, saying that parents had opened doors and connected electricity lines next to the synagogue. One congregant denied that parents had been called Nazis "or any other harsh name." A spokesman for the community center network said the observant had to understand that the center served the entire population and in accordance with this held various events on Saturdays. He said legal action would be taken against anyone believed to have broken the law. "The management of the community center network is in favor of rapproachment and tolerance, but in parallel with this will not tolerate violent tactics," the spokesman said.