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BERLIN (JTA) – A young Jewish man wearing a kippah was physically attacked on a Berlin street by an Arabic-speaking man in an apparent anti-Semitic attack.

Police are investigating the Tuesday evening incident, which the victim, 21, filmed on his cell phone.

During the attack, the assailant lashed the kippah-clad Jewish man with his belt and repeated the Arabic word for Jew, “Yahudi.”

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According to news reports, the victim was accompanied by two friends, ages 21 and 24, who also were wearing kippot. They reported being verbally attacked by three men; after the belt came out, one of the attacker’s companions intervened and the three began to move away.

Police told the BZ online newspaper that the Jewish men then followed their attackers, one of whom by then had picked up a bottle. A 24-year-old woman intervened to keep the groups apart and the three attackers fled on foot.

The incident took place on a warm evening in the trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, which is popular among many Israelis living in Berlin. It is also home to an Orthodox Jewish community centered around the Lauder Yeshivas Beis Zion and the synagogue Kahal Adass Jisroel Berlin.

The video of the attack taken on the victim’s cellphone  has coursed through social media after it was shared by the Berlin-based Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Antisemitism.

Forum spokesperson Levi Salomon told the BZ that the incident shows that even in a “posh Berlin district… Jews are not safe.” He said it is
time for politicians to stop talking and do something.

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