Group of men attack German Jew wearing Israeli pin and kippah

A large group of men attacked a 17-year-old German Jew who wore an Israeli pin and kippah on Friday night in what the police believe was an antisemitic attack.

German media in the West German city of Dusseldorf reported that some 10 men of “North African or Mediterranean” appearance pushed the young Jewish man, causing painful injuries.

The men also insulted the youth, whose name was not published in German media reports. According to the police, the suspects are between the ages of 18 and 23. Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted in response to The Jerusalem Post story: “Those are not just separate and distinct events. It’s a pattern, a pattern of antisemitic attacks by Muslim migrants against the members of the Jewish community, just because they are Jewish. It is unacceptable anywhere, and doubly so in Germany.”

Michael Szentei-Heise,The executive director of the Jewish community in Dusseldorf, told the WAZ daily newspaper that the attack showed, “For the safety of Jewish citizens in Germany it is catastrophic.”

The Post reported last week that a German of Palestinian origin physically attacked an Israeli professor in Bonn who was wearing a kippah. In Berlin, an Israeli Arab was violently attacked in April by a Syrian refugee because he was wearing a kippah. According to a German federal government study, 40% of Germans hold modern antisemitic views – the loathing of the Jewish state.