An Orthodox Jew was critically injured in Zurich. A 15-year-old is said to have attacked the man with a stabbing weapon. The police do not rule out an anti-Semitic motive for the crime.
An Orthodox Jew was critically injured with a stabbing weapon in Zurich. The police arrested a 15-year-old Swiss man as a suspect, they said. “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 on a street 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 are still being investigated.
The man’s condition has stabilized, wrote Zurich local councilor Jehuda Spielman, who says he knows the person attacked, on the X platform.
Safety precautions tightened in Zurich
The Secretary General of the Association of Jewish Communities, Jonathan Kreutner, appeared shocked on Swiss television. “It is very rare that there are physical attacks on Jews in Switzerland,” said Kreutner. “A case like this is really a new dimension.”
Such life-threatening attacks on the Jewish community have not occurred in the last two decades, according to a press release from the Association of Jewish Communities. However, a significant increase in such physical attacks has been recorded since October 7th.
According to the police, security precautions at Jewish institutions in Zurich have been tightened.