A group of Syrian migrants are suspected of assaulted a Jewish Syrian man wearing a Star of David necklace in Berlin on Saturday.
Police said that the 25-year-old victim had approached a group of people in a park to borrow a lighter when they noticed that he was wearing a Star of David necklace. They began to hurl anti-Semitic insults at him, grabbed the cigarette from his mouth and punched him. The victim then ran away, but was chased and beaten to the ground, reported Deutsche Welle public television.
The attackers fled when a passerby came to the man’s aid. The victim was hospitalized for his injuries.
The police added that three women and seven men ages 15 to 21 were subsequently detained and released, but that a special investigation was underway to deal with political motivated crimes.
In June, a German Jewish teen girl was found raped and murdered on the outskirts of the western German city of Wiesbaden. Iraqi and Turkish asylum seekers were suspected of killing the girl. Also in June, a 19-year-old Syrian was found guilty of serious bodily harm and verbal abuse after attacking two people in April who were were kipahs.
The recent attacks come amid a growing concern about the rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Germany from both the far-right and from Muslim migrants.
The German government announced last week that it would increase state funds to the Central Council of Jews—a federation of German Jewish groups—from to 13 million Euros ($15 million). The additional funding is meant to help in the fight against anti-Semitism.
The government is also planning to send 170 anti-bullying experts into German schools next fall to tackle anti-Semitism among children.
