Jewish teen threatened with knife

An 18-year-old Jewish man was threatened with a knife, told he would be killed, and punched in the stomach in Bentleigh in broad daylight on Friday, July 24, after asking a resident whether he was Jewish.

The young man, a student visiting from Canada, studies at a Melbourne yeshiva and spends each week doing Jewish outreach along Centre Road with a partner, helping Jewish residents put on tefillin.

At about 1.35pm, he approached an older man on a residential street and asked whether he happened to be Jewish. In the account he gave to Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abramovich, the man told him to “fuck off and stop bothering me”. The young man wished him a good day and walked away.

He said the man then watched him knock on doors further up the street, circled back, and advanced on him screaming threats to kill him and his boss, a knife in his right hand. The young man raised his hands and walked backwards, tried to de-escalate, then stood his ground. The man walked up to him, kept threatening him, and punched him in the stomach.

The young man called 000 at 1.48pm. By 2.04pm, Victoria Police had detained a man and taken his statement. Police arrested a 69-year-old man at the scene and seized two pocket knives. The investigation remains ongoing and no charges have been laid.