Tefilin (illustration)
Tefilin (illustration)Thinkstock

Yeshiva students who slept on a Kinneret beach during Yom Hashoa (Holocaust Remembrance Day) eve awoke Thursday to discover that that their bags were stolen - after conducting a search, they found their bags in a restroom.

The boys were shocked to discover that the unknown thieves had set fire to their bags, which contained their tefilin (phylacteries). According to reports, one pair of tefilin were intentionally dumped into the sink and had water poured over it.

“It seems that they came in order to burn, they burned with acetone prepared in advance," said a relative of one of the boys describing the incident.

According to Kikar Hashabat, one of the pairs of burned tefilin belonged to an 18-year-old orphan whose father had given them to him.

“It is shocking and hard to think that this is happened precisely on Yom Hashoa,” said the relative.

Police were alerted and an investigation was opened.