Swedish-Jewish woman, 60, fights off 3 attackers
Swedish flag Image by Harry Engels/Getty Images
(JTA) — A Jewish woman about 60 years old was robbed of her Star of David pendant and insulted for being Jewish after fighting off three purse snatchers near an ATM in Sweden.
The Expressen report on Friday afternoon’s incident in Nybro named neither the woman nor described the three male assailants, but it did say they were in their 20s.
After the woman fought off the attackers, one of them tore off the pendant and “mocked her religion,” according to the police description of the incident based on the woman’s complaint. The men fled and entered a parked car nearby.
Police are treating the incident as a hate crime, Expressen reported.
The number of anti-Semitic hate crimes recorded in Sweden rose to a record high in 2018, jumping 53 percent over the 2016 figures, government statistics show.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention listed 280 anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2018 compared to 182 in the previous surveyed year, which was 2016.
Sweden has about 20,000 Jews.
The post Swedish-Jewish woman, 60, fights off 3 purse snatchers appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren
We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.
With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.
— Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief
