Hassidic man stabbed in London in suspected hate crime

A hassidic Jewish man was stabbed on Friday in a suspected hate crime in London’s Stoke Newington, suffering head wounds. The man was later identified by the Jewish Chronicle as Rabbi Alter Yaakov Schlesinger, an Orthodox rabbi from Stamford Hill’s Satmar community.

The attacker was tackled by builders working nearby and pinned to the floor while police were called.

A friend of the victim, who arrived at the scene shortly after has told MailOnline that he saw blade wounds to the man’s skull. According to the friend, the victim had been standing outside a bank when the attack happened.

Schlesinger, who is in his 50s, is identifiably Jewish and was wearing Orthodox clothing.

He is thought to be in a stable condition as he was talking at the scene when dozens of emergency vehicles arrived, including the Jewish ambulance service Hatzalah.

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We were called today (Friday) at 10:56 a.m. to reports of a stabbing in Stoke Newington High Street, Stoke Newington,” according to The Mirror. “We dispatched an ambulance crew and an incident response officer. We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance. We assessed a man at the scene and took him to a major trauma center.”

Ephraim Goldstein, a volunteer with the Metropolitan police, tweeted that the local MP, Labour’s Dianne Abbott, had received complaints only the previous day regarding posters appearing at a bus station in the vicinity reading “End state brutality,” and “End Israeli Apartheid.”

The area is home to one of London’s largest Jewish Orthodox populations.

Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevich tweeted on Friday that the attack “demonstrates that Jews in the Diaspora continue to face the threat of antisemitism even during this pandemic outbreak of the coronavirus.

“I intend to augment the program to combat antisemitism and to ensure the security needs of Jews worldwide. We are the address for all Jews globally,” she added.

“Antisemitic incidents have become commonplace and part of what Jews around the world are going through,” Vice Chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel said in response to the stabbing.

“Unfortunately, as I said, once we were able to walk around the streets after the coronavirus passed, antisemitic events would rise and even become more physical and violent, and here we are witnessing an antisemitic stabbing incident.

“I call on the authorities to deal with the perpetrator to the fullest extent of the law,” Hagoel added.