A 39-year-old Chabad rabbi was attacked by a group of young
men in the German city of Offenbach, near
Frankfurt, according to media
reports.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gurewitz was reportedly attacked in
the KOMM German shopping center by a group of six to eight young men who pushed
him as they yelled “shitty Jew”.
A local police spokesman said a criminal complaint had been
filed and there was probable cause to investigate for an anti-Semitic hate
crime, bodily injury and harassment, according to a statement released by the
World Jewish Congress (WJC).
State security officials are also investigating the
incident.
The men reportedly pursued Gurewitz as he attempted to flee
the scene, but the rabbi was eventually rescued by his friend driving an
automobile.
Gurewitz had attempted to take pictures of his attackers
with his cell phone.
The men claimed they
had not aimed their comments at the rabbi, but rather called one of their own a
"shitty Jew" for being stingy, according to the WJC.
According to repotys, security personnel of the shopping
center then intervened and asked Gurewitz to delete the photos.
Mark Dainow, a vice-president of the Jewish community in
Offenbach, criticized the security personnel for failing to intervene when the
youths began attacking the rabbi.
In recent months, several Jews, including rabbis, have been
attacked or verbally insulted on the streets in Germany.
In a comment published on the German website 'Hagalil.com'
in which he describes the incident, Gurewitz says that verbal anti-Semitic
insults directed at his sons were an everyday phenomenon in Offenbach, where
one third of the residents are foreigners, according to WJC.
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