BERLIN—A rabbi has been attacked in Berlin by several men s who pushed him to the ground and insulted him in Arabic.
The Bild daily newspaper reported that Jan Aaron Hammel, who is visibly identifiable as Jewish, always wearing a kippah and tzitzit , said that he was accustomed to receiving antisemitic abuse.
He was attacked in the Charlottenburg neighborhood shortly after leaving a meeting of the Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Antisemitism (JFDA), a local activist group. Berlin police said they were investigating the attack.
Hammel said that he heard male voices behind him seconds before he was aggressively pushed over, spat upon and verbally abused. By the time the 54-year-old was back on his feet, the men had fled the scene.
He was treated for head and leg injuries at a Berlin hospital and is walking with the aid of crutches.
The attack follows two separate antisemitic assaults — both involving rabbis and their families leaving synagogues following Shabbat services — during the last month in Germany.
In one incident, Berlin Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal was set upon by two men while walking with his son; they insulted him in Arabic and then spat at him. In the other incident, in Munich, a local rabbi and his two sons were abused as “Sh_t Jews” and spat upon by a man and woman.