crime
Orthodox Jew stabbed in Zurich
A heavily armed police officer behind a barrier tape in downtown Zurich (symbolic image). photo
© Ennio Leanza/KEYSTONE/dpa
Attacks on Jews are rare in Switzerland. Now a crime is happening in Zurich. The police do not rule out the perpetrator’s anti-Semitic motivation.
“The ongoing investigations by the Zurich cantonal police and the responsible youth prosecutor’s office are going in all directions and explicitly include the possibility of an anti-Semitic crime,” she said.
The person attacked is a 50-year-old man. The police were called that evening because of an argument between several people. The background and exact course of events were still being investigated on Sunday.
The victim’s condition stabilized
The man’s condition has stabilized, wrote Zurich local councilor Jehuda Spielman, who says he knows the person attacked, on the X platform (formerly Twitter). The Secretary General of the Israelite Community Association, Jonathan Kreutner, appeared shocked on Swiss television. “It is very rare that there are physical attacks on Jews in Switzerland. A case like this is really a new dimension.”
According to the police, security precautions at Jewish institutions in Zurich have been tightened.
The president of the Conference of European Rabbis, Pinchas Goldschmidt, condemned the act. It is part of an “unprecedented series of recent anti-Semitic attacks in Europe,” he said, according to the statement.