Berlin – Youths Attack Rabbi In Germany

Berlin – A group of youths attacked a Rabbi in the city of Offenbach. German media reports wrote that six to eight ‚“mediterranean looking“ youths attacked the 39-year-old Rabbi Mendel Gurewitz. The youths pushed the Rabbis and called him a “shitty Jew.”

The German media frequently avoids labeling suspects based on their background. The term Mediterranean could be interpreted as the perpetrators having an Arab origin.

The orthodox Rabbi filed a police complaint. The main German Jewish weekly Jüdische Allgemeine (JAZ)reported on its website that a police spokesman Rudi Neu, in southeast Hesse,said a criminal complaint was filed and there is probable cause to investigate for an anti-Semitic hate crime, bodily injury and harassment.

The police spokesman said the Rabbi photographed the youths with his mobile, after the initial verbal hostility. The group of youths told him to delete the photos.

The alleged attack took place in a shopping center passage. The authorities are reviewing video cameras in the shopping area for footage covering the alleged attack. The deputy director of the Jewish community in Offenbach, Mark Dainow, criticized the security personnel at the shopping location for failing to intervene to stop the aggressive activity of the youths.

The Rabbi was forced to flee the building and was pursued by the youth. A friend of the Rabbi drove by and was able to rescue the Rabbi from the assailants. The head of the shopping mall apologize for the conduct of the security personnel.

Last month, three people attacked a 26-year-old Jewish man in Berlin early on Sunday morning, lightly wounding him.. He was wearing a T-shirt with a pro-Israel emblem on it, and the assailants learned that he was Jewish in the course of a conversation.

Also in May, an Israeli soldier said he was among 10 young Israelis who were subjected to an anti-Semitic verbal attack before a Beyonce concert in Berlin.The soldier, Nathanel Zerad, told JTA that the incident last week at the O2 World Stadium.

Standing at the head of the line to enter the venue, Zerad said the Israelis were verbally attacked by a group of about 50 Germans who wanted to move ahead of them.

“Some of them noticed that we were speaking Hebrew,” Zerad said. “One of them said, ‘You stink, you should go back to Israel.’ A girl said, ‘You guys smell so bad. Why didn’t he die in the Holocaust?’ ” JTA contributed to this report.

Content is provided courtesy of the Jerusalem Post