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Friday April 5, 2002

German Jews shaken by attack on two U.S. rabbis

BERLIN (JTA) -- German Jewish leaders have been shaken by an attack on two visiting American rabbis and the vandalism of a Holoc
The incidents come on the heels of a string of violent attacks on synagogues and other Jewish venues in Belgium and France.

To extend Middle East violence "to include all Jews shows the true, grotesque face of fanatical Islamists, who ultimately want to dump Israel in the sea and see Judaism as public enemy No. 1," said Michel Friedman, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

There has been an increase in anti-Semitic attacks here during the past year and a half, but nothing comparable to the surge that has shocked the Jewish community of France.

The latest incident may have been a wake-up call. Berlin Inforadio reported Tuesday that two young Orthodox rabbis visiting from the United States were attacked by a group of young men on the city's main shopping street last Saturday night.

One of the men was beaten and kicked so badly that he had to be brought in an ambulance to the hospital, where he was treated for injuries to his face.

Berlin police reported that the rabbis had come out of a synagogue and were on their way to the home of Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal when they were accosted by six to eight men who appeared to be Arabs.

One asked the Americans, "Are you a Jew?" When the young man confirmed this, the attackers allegedly beat and kicked him to the ground. The attackers escaped before police arrived.

"We were all shocked," Rabbi Teichtal told reporters Tuesday. "Our guests were in Berlin for the first time. It is regrettable that they have to leave the city with such a negative impression."

The previous day, a Jewish Holocaust memorial in Berlin was vandalized. Police reported that their patrols found swastikas painted on the memorial shortly after midnight. The perpetrators have not yet been found.

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