Identical letters were received in the offices of Chief Ashkenazic Rabbi Yona Metzger and Chief Sephardic Rabbi Shlomo Amar, Monday, threatening the deaths of hundreds of hareidi-religious Jews if Women of the Wall are not allowed to conduct their own brand of services for the new Jewish month of Tammuz, next Sunday. The letters, which included a picture of a handgun, concluded with the warning, "We are not controlling ourselves any longer. We are liberating the wall again."
Director-General Oded Weiner of the Chief Rabbinate forwarded the letters to the security officer of the Prime Minister's Office, who is in charge of security for the Chief Rabbinate. A statement by the Rabbinate noted that it was the first time threats had been received on the lives of the chief rabbis, noting that it also targeted a whole community. The Rabbinate is trying to restore calm to the Western Wall after hareidim disrupted the Women of the Wall's new-moon observance for the month of Sivan.