Jews Attacked in Europe, the FSU and Australiahttp://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=11387118:41 Oct 19, '06 / 27 Tishrei 5767
An Australian Jew was viciously beaten in front of his young children on the last day of the Sukkot Festival by a group of drunken Australian-rules football players in the city of Caulfield.
A group of 20 men yelled anti-Jewish epithets such as "Go to the Nazis" at 33-year-old Menachem Vorcheimer, who was walking with his children, aged three and six. They then began motioning as if they were shooting a machine gun at him and the children.
When Vorcheimer approached the bus to find out the name of the football team, the men reached out the window, knocked his hat off and grabbed his yarmulke before punching him in the face. The bleeding Vorcheimer, with his children crying on the sidewalk, lay down in front of the bus and refused to allow it to leave until the police arrived. Other passersby surrounded the bus and prevented it from making a getaway and the attackers were apprehended. Vorcheimer was treated at a nearby hospital.
The Ocean Grove Football Club’s owner, Michael Vines, apologized to the victim, but the team's coach, Matthew Sproule, called the incident an "accident."
This was hardly the first anti-Semitic incident in Australia this summer. Australian Jewish organizations report at least five unprovoked violent attacks and hundreds of instances of anti-Semitic vandalism, targeting Jewish schools, synagogues and private homes.
The number of instances in July was the highest since Jewish organizations began keeping track of attacks in 1945.
Great BritainThere was a sharp rise in incidents during the war with Hizbullah. A 12-year-old Jewish girl was brutally attacked last by a group of young people on a public bus. The youths asked the girl if she was Jewish before they attacked her by hitting her with their cellular phones. The girl says she screamed but all the other passengers looked on and did nothing. Her eye was fractured and she was rendered unconscious in the attack. Eventually someone forced open the door and let the girl and her friend out, where a passing motorist brought them to the hospital.
The girl says although her wounds have healed, she is still traumatized by the inaction of the bystanders.
Six British youths were recently arrested for the attack. Four of the attackers were 14-year-old girls and two were ten years old – one male and one female.
GermanyGermany’s Interior Ministry reports that anti-Semitic acts have risen sharply over the past two years.
In the first two thirds of 2006, 8,000 Neo-Nazi crimes were recorded – compared to 6,605 during the same period in 2005 and 4,000 in 2004. Of those crimes, 425 were violent attacks against Jews and Jewish targets, in which 325 people were injured.
Incidents included:
* A student forced to wear a sign reading “I am the greatest swine because I am friends with the Jews.”
* Neo-Nazi parties featuring the burning of “The Diary of Anne Frank.”
*The significant gains of the NPD party, favored by Neo-Nazis
RussiaEighty Jewish graves were smashed or painted with swastikas over the Yom Kippur holiday at a cemetery in the village of Tver, near Moskow.
Various other Jewish targets, such as synagogues and Jewish Agency buildings have had windows broken and graffiti sprayed on them. Fliers featuring caricatures of Jews and slogans such as “Russia is for Russians” have also been circulating widely.
Mel GibsonThe high-profile actor and creator of the movie depicting the Jewish role in the killing of Jesus has linked his drunken anti-Jewish tirade with Israel’s war in Lebanon.
Gibson told ABC’s Good Morning America that his drunken statement to police that “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world” stemmed from his concerns over the violence raging between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon at the time.
Asked by host Dianne Sawyer, “What are the Jews responsible for?” Gibson replied, “They’re not blameless in the conflict.”
SerbiaTwo Israelis were attacked and severely beaten by a group of skinheads last month while walking through a park in Belgrade. Yariv Avram, 27, and Boyana Petkovic, 23, were attacked as they attending a music festival in the park. Avram suffered serious head injuries and Petkovic suffered bruising. The men who attacked them were wearing Nazi paraphernalia and identified them as Jews. The two men said their attackers chanted “Auschwitz, Auschwitz” and “Go to Germany” as they beat them.