Star of David Pendant Spurs Attack in Berlin

By JTA July 9, 2014

A man wearing a Star of David pendant and cap was attacked in a Berlin park in what investigators suspect was a right-wing hate crime.

The unidentified victim, 67, was sitting with a friend on a bench in Berlin’s Tiergarten park on Monday afternoon when two men approached and began to harass him, he said. The assailants then repeatedly punched him. He was treated in a hospital for multiple lacerations to the head.

The assailants were able to flee.

Deidre Berger, director of the Berlin office of American Jewish Committee, said in a statement that anti-Semitic attacks in Germany are becoming more common and urged political leaders to implement and support programs designed to combat the trend.

“For three years, the recommendations of an independent commission of experts [on anti-Semitism] convened by the federal government have sat unused in a drawer,” Berger noted, adding that proven programs such as Berlin’s “Kreuzberg Initiative Against Anti-Semitism” – which reaches out especially to youth – are struggling to survive.

In April, a young Israeli living in the capital was beaten outside his apartment in broad daylight by six young men who identified themselves as Palestinian.

In August 2012, Berlin-based Rabbi Daniel Alter was attacked in front of his home by a group of youths who also threatened to kill his young daughter. The youths, reported to be of Middle-Eastern origin, asked Alter – who wore a yarmulke – if he was Jewish. He required surgery to repair a broken cheekbone.

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