Rabbi Says Police Never Came To Help Daughter Attacked In London Park
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(JTA) — A Jewish chaplain in London said his 16-year-old daughter was punched and kicked in a local park in an anti-Semitic attack, and that police did not respond to an emergency call.
Alex Goldberg, the Jewish Chaplain at the University of Surrey and Chaplain to Surrey Police, said in a post on Facebook Sunday that he is proud of his daughter, Hannah, “for standing up to sexism, racism and religious abuse,” but was “Less proud of the police service that I have worked with for over two decades in failing to respond to three girls being attacked and racially abused.”
Hannah Goldberg and her two friends, who her father said were identifiable as religious Jews due to their long skirts, were in a London-area park on May 27 when they were attacked by teens playing basketball. A basketball thrown at her head cut and injured her. She was also punched in the face and kicked in the chest by at least two of the boys. One of them said “Hitler should have killed all you Jews” and “You should have all been gassed,” while the second said, “Jews are the worst.”
A bystander called the police. The girls waited for two hours for the police to come before leaving the park, Alexander Goldberg said.
The local police station said in a statement that they responded to an emergency call from a bystander within 19 minutes but could not find the caller or Hannah. “Something has gone wrong and we are looking into why so we can learn from it and prevent it happening again. We are now working with Hannah to identify the suspects,” they added.
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