Berlin Officials Express Outrage Over Attack on Rabbi
An attack on a rabbi walking with his young daughter through a leafy district of Berlin Tuesday has drawn quick condemnation from local officials and the Jewish community. The perpetrators remain at large.
Berlin officials and members of the city’s Jewish community have expressed outrage after a 53-year-old rabbi was attacked in Berlin Tuesday evening as he was walking down the street with his six-year-old daughter.
The rabbi, who was wearing a yarmulke at the time, was reportedly approached by a young man who asked if he was Jewish. He then was beaten by the young man and three other accomplices, who local police said were “presumably of Arab heritage.” The attackers also reportedly threatened to kill the rabbi’s daughter. The rabbi suffered head injuries and was treated at a hospital for a broken cheekbone.
Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit, of the Social Democrats (SPD), and his Interior Minister Frank Henkel, of the conservative Christian Democrats, called it a “brutal” and “cowardly” attack.
The four alleged attackers have not been arrested. The attack took place on a tree-lined street in the western Berlin neighborhood of Friedenau, in the so-called “painter’s district,” where the streets are named for Rembrandt, Rubens and Cranach.
‘New Dimension’
Walter Rothschild, a rabbi in Berlin, told RBB news radio that the attack represented a “new dimension.” He said he has been attacked and has received abusive emails, and no longer wears yarmulkes, also called kippas, in public.
Dilek Kolat, Berlin’s state senator for labor, integration, and women’s affairs, called for vigilance and civil courage against anti-Semitism following the attack. Kolat, a German of Turkish origin, issued a statement in which she said she was “shocked at the level of violence and the brutality of the attackers, who did not hold back from intimidating a young child.” She called for long-term campaigns against racism and anti-Semitism.