A Jewish ultra-Orthodox MP was assigned a bodyguard on Sunday after death threats from his own party`s supporters blaming him for the loss of the mayorship of Jerusalem to a secular Israeli.

Rabbi Yakov Litzman, a prominent leader in the Hasidic movement, was on Saturday cursed and kicked in a synagogue in the reclusive ultra-Orthodox Mea Shearim neighbourhood in the centre of Jerusalem.

According to witnesses, young ultra-Orthodox pelted the 60-year-old rabbi with cakes and threw his black fur hat on the floor.

Following the Saturday incident, parliament`s security officer assigned Litzman with a bodyguard after he was said to have received anonymous death threats, an aide to Litzman told AFP.

The tensions surfaced when Litzman was accused of telling his followers not to vote for Jerusalem`s ultra-Orthodox mayoral candidate Meir Porush and even urging them to back secular candidate Nir Barkat.

Barkat`s victory in last Tuesday`s vote -- which ended a five-year-rule of an ultra-Orthodox mayor -- was seen to be largely due to the lack of unity within the ranks of the Holy City`s large ultra-Orthodox community.

According to reports in the ultra-Orthodox media, Litzman`s supporters even hung posters in secular neighbourhoods saying `Porush will bring the Taliban to Jerusalem,` referring to the radical Islamist militia which ruled Afghanistan until the US-led invasion of 2001.

Litzman and Porush represent two rival families within the Hasidic movement -- the mystic Hasidim and their more scholastic opponents, the Mitnagdim -- which originated in Eastern Europe in the 18th Century.

The row between the two wings of ultra-Orthodox Judaism could have a bearing on snap parliamentary elections due to be held in February.

In the last elections in 2006 the two wings -- the Hassidic Agudat Israel faction and their opponents in the Degel HaTorah faction -- fought on a combined list -- United Torah Judaism.

If the rift is not healed, the two might split as they have several times in the past.