28 August 2006
A court in Warsaw has sentenced a man who attacked Poland's chief rabbi Michael Schudrich to two years in prison. However, the sentence was suspended for five years. Schudrich was attacked in central Warsaw in May during Pope Benedict's first visit to Poland. According to Schudrich, the attacker, named only as Karol G, yelled "Poland is for Poles". He then hit him and sprayed him with what appeared to be pepper spray after Schudrich asked why he was insulting him. The chief rabbi was not injured in the attack and went on to take part in ceremonies at Auschwitz-Birkenau led by the Pope. After the attack, the Jewish community and Poland's European Union partners accused the conservative-led government of president Kaczynski of not doing enough to counter anti-Semitism.
