Jewish teen threatened with knife
Jewish teen threatened with knife after asking if a resident was Jewish.
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.
After giving his statement, the young man picked up his tefillin and finished his route, as he does each week.
Abramovich said the incident should be treated as a hate-motivated attack, and that if prejudice drove it, the charges should reflect it. “A hate-motivated attack on a Jewish teenager, named for what it is, prosecuted for what it is, and punished for what it is,” he said.
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said it was appalled by the alleged attack.
“It is deeply disturbing that young people peacefully going about their lives are allegedly threatened and assaulted simply because they are visibly Jewish,” it said, adding that the incident was not isolated but reflected a continued rise in antisemitism.
“Hatred that goes unchecked inevitably leads to intimidation and violence.”