A 76-year-old Israeli man is accused of murdering his wife after she disturbed him while he was watching a tennis match on television.

Moisei Beiniashvilli of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv, was charged with murder Thursday in Tel Aviv District Court.

Prosecutors said his wife, Malka, disturbed him during a critical moment of the Australian Open at the end of January, causing him to attack her, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.

Beiniashvilli reportedly beat his wife on the head with a wooden cutting board, which she succeeded in throwing out an open window in the apartment. He then hit her on the head with a hammer.

Neighbors heard the woman scream and called police, but were unable to stop the attack.

Police stormed the apartment and arrested Beiniashvilli. His wife died after three days in the hospital.

Prosecutors are seeking to keep Beiniashvilli jailed until the end of his trial.

It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!

We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.

This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions. 

We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.

As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday! 

Don't just read the Forward - invest in it. Make a gift and our board will match it.

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$129 $180 $360 OTHER AMOUNT