Rabbi abused in Perth
A VISITING Israeli rabbi was accosted in a Perth shopping mall by six youths shouting abuse about Israeli actions in Gaza and appeared to be only seconds away from a bashing.
A VISITING Israeli rabbi was accosted in a Perth shopping mall by six youths shouting abuse about Israeli actions in Gaza and appeared to be only seconds away from a bashing.
Rabbi Avraham Shalom Halberstam, also known as the Stropkover Rebbe, was in Western Australia as part of a private trip to Australia in which he also addressed Chabad followers on the east coast.
The Jerusalem-based rabbi was shopping in the Morley Galleria with his assistant and with an Australian friend Danny Mayer, when the attack occurred on Monday afternoon.
Mayer had taken Rabbi Halberstam to the shopping mall near Dianella, home to many of Perth’s Jewish community, so he could buy shoes suitable for the solemn Tisha b’Av observance.
“I dropped him and his assistant off to the Kmart there and I waited outside in the car,” Mayer told The AJN. “In half an hour, they finished shopping and he went to a different exit not far away from the original one and he was calling me on his phone to see where I was.
“But while that was happening, I could hear [through the phone] that he was being accosted by people, asking him ‘Are you a Jew, are you a Jew?’ I spotted him at the same time and began to race towards him.”
When Mayer reached the rabbi and his assistant, they were surrounded by the youths. “They were following them, yelling at them, and I asked them what their problem was, and that’s when they started ranting about killing babies in Gaza.
“They got very aggressive and started pounding on the [car] windows. They were literally seconds away from bashing the rebbe, but he was able to shut the door in time.”
The attackers, who were “of Mediterranean appearance”, shouted “f**k off” and said they were killers who wanted to “fix us up”, he said.
Mayer said the youths ran away when he produced a camera. He reported the incident to shopping centre management and police are using CCTV footage to try to find the rabbi’s assailants.
Local MP Ian Britza condemned the attack. “We’ve been saying for a long time that there is an element that wants to bring this [anti-Semitism] into our nation … We need to protect all people from this kind of violent approach.”
PETER KOHN
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