Orthodox Jew attacked outside crowded Berlin cafe; received no assistance from onlookers
Jerusalem Post ^ | Mar. 24, 2003
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - BERLIN
An American Jew in traditional Orthodox dress was assaulted by four men late Sunday afternoon on the capital's main shopping boulevard, police said Monday.
One of the assailants swung at the 21-year-old rabbinical student, striking him in the face, and another threw an object at him, police said. The men, described as Middle Eastern in appearance, have not been identified or detained.
The student was not hurt, but was shaken up by both the incident and the fact that no one at a crowded outdoor cafe where the attack took place intervened, said Rabbi Yedudah Teichtal, who runs a rabbinical school in Berlin where the young man has been studying for about six months.
"You always have wild people, you always have people who are uncontrollable. What was really shocking was that no one responded when he wanted to call the police," Teichtal said.
When the student, who was wearing a traditional Fedora hat and black suit, asked to use one man's mobile phone, he responded, "I didn't see anything," according to Teichtal.
The student reported the incident at the nearby Fasanenstrasse synagogue, where he was going to attend a wedding.
It's the second time in less than a year that an Orthodox student was attacked on the Kuefuerstendamm Boulevard.
"I hope the police do everything they can to give us proper security, and make sure this doesn't happen again," Teichtal said.
Security has been stepped up at Jewish sites in Germany since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States. In Berlin, authorities have proposed permanently upgrading security around the city's restored New Synagogue, including concrete barriers to prevent a car-bomb attack and a narrowing of the street to leave a 4.7-meter (15-foot) exclusion zone along the front of the building. |
