A 39-year-old Chabad rabbi has been attacked by a group of youth in the German city of Offenbach, near Frankfurt. According to media reports, between six and eight youths attacked Rabbi Menachem Mendel Gurewitz, pushing him and calling him a “shitty Jew”. A local police spokesman said a criminal complaint had been filed and there was probable cause to investigate for an anti-Semitic hate crime, bodily injury and harassment. State security officials are also investigating.
Gurewitz was forced to flee the KOMM Center building and the youths pursued him. A friend of the rabbi drove by and rescued the rabbi by picking him up in his car. The manager of the shopping mall apologized for the conduct of the security personnel.
When Gurewitz took photos of his assailants with his cell phone, the youths claimed they had not meant the rabbi but called one of their own a "shitty Jew" for being stingy. Security personnel of the shopping center then intervened and asked Gurewitz to delete the photos. The authorities are reviewing video footage. Mark Dainow, a vice-president of the Jewish community in Offenbach, criticized the security personnel for failing to intervene when the youths started attacking the rabbi.
In recent months, several Jews, including rabbis, have been attacked or verbally insulted on the streets in Germany. In a comment published on the German website 'Hagalil.com' in which he describes the incident, Gurewitz says that verbal anti-Semitic insults directed at his sons were an everyday phenomenon in Offenbach, where one third of the residents are foreigners.
