kippah (illustration)
kippah (illustration)iStock

Samuel Kantrovich, a 19-year-old Jewish student, was attacked while working out at a gym in Freiburg, Germany.

The incident took place on Tuesday, when a man Kantrovich did not recognize came to him from behind, knocked his kippah off his head and shouted "Dirty Jew", "Free Palestine" and "Do you want me to hit you? Get out of here, smelly Jew."

The assailant took the kippah that he removed from the head of the young Jewish man, spat into it and threw it in the trash.

Freiburg police have launched an investigation.

Kantrovich recalled the incident in an interview with Antonia Yamin, Chief Europe Correspondent for Kan News.

"The room was full of strong young men and no one intervened. I realized I was alone. Until today I thought it wasn't really dangerous and that I could feel free in Freiburg but I realized that I was wrong and that if something happened to me on the street no one would want to help me," he said.

Kantrovich said he has decided to take the kippah off his head for the time being.

"It is important to me that people know what happened because in Freiburg it is widely believed that anti-Semitism exists only on television or in Berlin. I admit that I am afraid I might run into the man who attacked me on the street. Next time he may hit me."

Anti-Semitic crimes rose by 20 percent in Germany last year, according to interior ministry data which blamed nine out of 10 cases on the extreme right.

A report released last summer found that Germany had seen an increased number of attacks on Jews during the first half of 2018.

Just last month, a synagogue in the city of Halle was targeted by a neo-Nazi during Yom Kippur prayers.

When he was unable to blast open the locked door, he shot and killed two non-Jewish Germans -- one on the street outside and another at a Turkish snack shop.