Fourth Man Charged in Alleged Anti-Semitic Attack on Religious Jews in Sydney

By JTA November 12, 2013

A fourth man was charged in an alleged anti-Semitic attack on five religious Jews in Sydney.

The 26-year-old appeared in court on Tuesday and was denied bail after being arrested the previous day. Among the charges are possessing a knife in a public place and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

He and three others are accused verbally abusing and physically beating four members of the Behar family and Shlomo Ben-Haiem, the educational emissary for the Jewish National Fund, on Oct. 25.

The five, all religious Jews, were walking home after midnight on Oct. 25 when they allegedly were accosted. They were hospitalized, with Eli Behar suffering a brain injury. He was released after two nights in hospital.

Jewish leaders described the alleged assault as the worst anti-Semitic attack of its kind since records began being kept in the late 1980s.

The others charged were two 17-year-olds, who will face juvenile court on Wednesday, and a 23-year-old man who is due to appear in court on Dec. 3.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO