Mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai is demanding an apology and NIS 100,000 fine from Culture Minister Miri Regev after she claimed he forbade the wearing of tefillin in the city on Thursday. The exchange followed the Tel Aviv Municipality's February 11 decision to prevent the placement of various types of stalls, including prayer stalls, within 100 m. (328 ft) of public buildings serving minors. Prayer stalls often involve religious Jews asking Jewish males to wrap tefillin (phylacteries) and pray, which observant men traditionally do in the morning.
Huldai argues that there are many stands in which religious Jews are able to appeal to other Jewish men and that his instruction was that such stands will not be placed next to schools. Huldai claimed that this is an old regulation and applies for all stands offering services.Some non-religious Jews view the stands as obtrusive and object to them being near schools as these efforts might be seen as an attempt to make children more observant against their parents ' wishes.
Regev said she is not afraid and accused Huldai of using a lawsuit to silence her.
“I am proud to speak for a society you call 'crazed,' a society you look down on, a society that puts on tefillin, kisses the mezuzah and visits the graves of righteous men,” she said. A mezuzah is a parchment written by hand and placed in a case on Jewish doorways. There is a custom among some traditional Jewish people to kiss the mezuzah and visit the graves of famous rabbis to pray, but not all Jews, religious or not, follow such habits.