Dozens of ultra-Orthodox extremists smashed windows and caused property damage while trying to break into Supreme Court Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg’s house during a riot Wednesday night, in the latest such violent demonstration targeting law enforcement over the arrest of Haredi draft dodgers.

Images from the Alon Shvut settlement showed shattered windows, broken flowerpots by the front door of the house, a car in the garage with a smashed windshield, and a small Israeli flag with a swastika in place of the Star of David.

Sohlberg and his wife were both home at the time of the attempted break-in.

The Haredi demonstrators tried to flee the scene on a bus but were stopped by police, who said they detained dozens of suspects.

It was not clear why the rioters chose to protest Sohlberg, though he has been highly critical of the government for failing to enforce conscription, saying in April that the low number of arrests of ultra-Orthodox draft dodgers gave “the impression of a complete failure of the police.”

He was also part of the nine-member judicial panel that in 2024 unanimously invalidated the years-long exemptions to mandatory military service for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students, exposing those who do not enlist as legally required to arrest and leading to the coalition’s current efforts to legislate a new exemption law.

“We are children of Holocaust survivors; how can Jews hurt one another?” Sohlberg’s wife, Meira, said to reporters outside her vandalized home. “Look at this devastation, it’s a pogrom. What is this, Kristallnacht?”

The Judicial Authority released a statement decrying the “grave and unacceptable incident,” which it described as “an attempt to harm the sense of security of judicial officeholders and........

© The Times of Israel