Jewish Student Assaulted, Verbally Abused At Fitness Center In Freiburg, Germany

FREIBURG, Germany (VosIzNeias) — Samuel Kantrowitz, a 19-year-old Jewish student, was doing his regular workout at the fitness center in the city when a man grabbed him from behind, threw off his Kippah and shouted “Dirty Jew” and “Free Palestine.” The attacker then added “Do you want me to hit you? Get out of here, filthy Jew.” He also took Samuel’s Kippah, spat on it and threw it in the garbage.

During the entire episode none of those present in the room tried to intervene until one older person came over and tried to calm things down.

Kantrowitz later told Israeli news outlet Kann that “the room was full of strong, youthful men  and none of them intervened. I understood that I am alone. Until now I thought that it its’t really dangerous here and I can feel free in Freiburg but now I realize that I was mistaken and that if something would happen to me in the street nobody would want to help me.”

The shaken Kantrowitz decided not to continue wearing his Kippah in public adding that “it’s important that people know what happened because the prevalent view here is that anti-Semitism exists only on television or in Berlin. I admit that I’m afraid to see the guy who attacked me in the street, because next time he might try to hit me as well.”