The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin remains very high. More than 300 incidents in this category – including attacks – were registered in the first half of this year alone.

A 37-year-old Jewish man walking with his son was attacked by a 61-year-old man in Berlin on Saturday at a subway station in a antisemitic incident, Berlin Police said.

The incident took place in the Prenzlauer Berg area of Berlin as the Jewish man was walking at the southern entrance of the Storkower Straße S-Bahn station with his son. Police said the suspect “spoke to him disrespectfully”, but the Jewish man continued on his way and ignored him. Later, when the man returned to use the elevator at the railway station in the area, the suspect hit him in the neck and made antisemitic comments.

Thanks to witnesses who were at the scene, police quickly found the alleged attacker, who was under the influence of alcohol.  details. He was released on the spot and is being investigated on suspicion of conducting an assault with an antisemitic motive.

Police spokesman Martin Halweg told the Jüdische Allgemeine that the man was released because ‘’there was no risk of fleeing, nor were there any indications that the alleged perpetrator would attack the man with the child again.’’

Halweg also said that the victim of the attack was – contrary to the reporting of the daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung – not Jewish. Regardless of this aspect, the police considered the attack to be an anti-Semitic crime, because a corresponding motivation of the perpetrator was clearly recognizable. He had shown a “Jew-hostile, anti-Semitic attitude”.

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in Berlin remains very high. More than 300 incidents in this category – including attacks – were registered in the first half of this year alone.