Three people harassed and intimidated an American Jewish couple on the street in Venice, Italy, on Saturday, Italian media reported, setting loose a dog on the man, spitting on him, spraying both victims with water, all while using antisemitic pejoratives.
The couple were recognizably Jewish because the man was dressed as an Orthodox Jew, the RAI news agency reported on Monday.
The three alleged attackers began harassing the couple in the Rialto area, forcing them to seek refuge in a well-known Jewish restaurant in the old Venice Ghetto, where they had been staying.
No charges had been filed yet. The two victims, who were in Italy on a tourist visa, had already left the country, according to the report.
A police investigation is underway with the primary objective of identifying the perpetrators, RAI quoted a police source as saying. The Venice police will attempt to contact the couple and review local surveillance cameras to identify the three attackers, the police source told RAI.
About 27,000 Jews live in Italy, according to a demographic study performed by the Italian-born demographer Professor Sergio DellaPergola of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The Foundation Contemporary Jewish Documentation Center (CDEC), a nonprofit research institute for the history of Jews in Italy in the Contemporary age based in Milan, registered 877 antisemitic incidents in 2024 compared to 454 in 2023.
In July, leaders of Italian Jewry condemned the recent spate of public expressions of hatred of Jews and Israelis, which one Italian-Jewish communal leader said the government needed new laws to address.
Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, said in an interview published in Il Giorno: “The legislation on so-called hate crimes is insufficient, it does not protect, it does not prevent. We see it every day now.”
Under Italy’s 1993 penal code, the sentence for assault may be increased by up to half the base sentence if the crime was aggravated by racist or xenophobic hatred. Other countries have tougher penal codes when it comes to hate crime, including France, where it can increase sentences by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to €150,000 ($174,000).
