A group of yeshivah students walking in the street in Lucerne, Switzerland, on Saturday night were attacked by a man who spat on them and threatened them with a knife.
It was 8:30 p.m. when the yeshivah students approached Lucerne’s train station. The man approached and asked, “Are you Jews?”
Before the group could answer, he spat at them.
The students rushed toward the station’s plaza. But the man, described by witnesses as Arab, pursued them. Then he pulled out a knife and shouted pro-Palestinian slogans.
Sensing the escalating danger, passersby intervened and the assailant fled. No one was injured.
Police who were called to the scene could not found the attacker.
“It was terrifying,” one student posted on social media. “We tried to walk away, but he wouldn’t stop. Those people saved us.”
Due to Shabbat restrictions, the students, among them Israelis, could not file a formal complaint until after the Sabbath, and with Swiss police stations closed on Sundays except for emergencies, they were told to return on Monday.
According to JFeed website, it is possible that security cameras at the busy station recorded the incident, offering police a lead to identify the assailant.
The attack comes amid a rise in antisemitism in Switzerland.
According to the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), antisemitic incidents surged 43% in 2024, with 221 cases in German-, Italian- and Romansh-speaking regions, up from 155 in 2023. Verbal abuse and antisemitic comments accounted for 65.5% of the incidents.
In Switzerland, 32% of Jews avoid wearing visible Jewish symbols, up from 19.5% in 2020, with 28% considering emigration due to safety fears.
The SIG noted that physical attacks, though rare, are rising, with the Gaza war fueling tensions.
Earlier this month, Geneva-based CICAD, , the Intercommunity Coordination Against Anti-Semitism and Defamation, expressed concern at the growing number of serious antisemitic acts and remarks that occurred in French-speaking Switzerland so far in 2025.
“These events, diverse in nature but convergent in their seriousness, bear witness to a worrying liberation of antisemitic speech in the public, cultural, educational and digital spheres,” said Johanne Gurfinkiel, secretary-general of CICAD.
“These incidents show that antisemitism is no longer confined to the marginal or virtual sphere. It is expressed in the street, in schools, in cultural institutions and even on sports fields—without a sufficiently firm response from the authorities,” CICAD warned.
Originally published by the European Jewish Press.
