The assailant asked me ‘what I came there to do as a Jew,’  Rabbi Aryeh Heintz of Utrecht, told daily De Telegraaf.

‘’It’s terrible that we are no longer safe in the Netherlands,’’ the rabbi’s wife said.

A rabbi was attacked Friday afternoon in a shopping center in Utrecht, a city in the centre of the Netherlands,  daily newspaper De Telegraaf reported.

Police are investigating tge attack.

Rabbi Aryeh Heintz said he was accosted by a man who asked what he came there to do, “dressed as a Jew.’’ He was then hit on the head.

According to Heintz, moments later the perpetrator entered an Action discount shop after him and shoved him. ”Two Moroccan women stopped that man and caught the blows I was about to receive,” Heintz recounted.

When he tried to take a picture of his attacker with his phone, the manager forbade him to do so. “The manager said, ‘’You leave now and you’re not coming back.’’ ‘’ So someone makes an anti-Semitic attack and I am then barred,’’ the rabbi said.

A spokesman for  Action cofirmed that Heintz was banned from taking photos. “That is not allowed according to our directive. We are not otherwise a party to this dispute.” According to the spokesman, the victim was, however, advised to request security footage from the store.

The Action denied that he was told he was no longer welcome in the store.

Heintz, who has worked in law enforcement for 26 years, was not injured but expressed outrage. “I’ve had a swastika on my door before, but usually it’s just swearing. We really notice that anti-Semitism is getting worse. But I don’t let terrorists define my life. If I have to go to the shopping center,  I go. Maybe I’ll be more careful.”

‘’It’s terrible that we are no longer safe in the Netherlands,’’ the rabbi’s wife, Bracha, said.

Police say they are still investigating the case.