Meir Porush
Meir PorushHezki Ezra

Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush (UTJ) was involved in an unpleasant situation in Monsey when members of the anti-Zionist Satmar hassidic sect burst into the Synagogue during prayers and hurled insults.

Porush had spent the Rosh Hashanah holiday in New York's Vitznitz-Monsey community. On Shabbat, he was in the middle of prayers when a band of hassidic Jews identified with Satmar started to yell at him for "destroying the Jewish people through the forced IDF draft."

Police were summoned to the scene and hauled off the hecklers.

Earlier, large notices were plastered across Monsey ahead of Porush's visit. "Once more, one of the greatest collaborators with the destroyers of God in our holy land came to our town in Monsey, to bring yeshiva students to the destruction camps of the IDF, and to instill heresy in our educational institutions. With every step he takes, he destroys the wall separating Torah and the Zionist poison" read the missives.

The notices also discussed the fact the Porush brought along his son to America, Elad mayor Yisrael Porush, calling him "one of the most evil and impure people alive."

The virulently anti-Zionist Satmar sect is often at loggerheads with haredi politicians in Israel, whom they deem "collaborators with the Zionist regime" for belonging to a political party and running for Knesset seats. In June, one of the Satmar Grand Rabbi's told 20,000 Jews at an anti-Israel rally that "haredi politicians were taking coalition bribes."

"Five years ago, when the evil decree drafting yeshiva boys was made, the entire haredi world made noise and fought against it," the Satmar Rebbe said. "Now, when they're part of the government and they receive enormous budgets, they can't see the truth anymore."

"Bribery blinds the eyes of the wise, and they no longer see the evilness of the decree."

Satmar hassidim in Israel do not accept government funds such as National Insurance payments, nor do they vote.