Anti-Semitism (illustration)
Anti-Semitism (illustration)Israel news photo: archive

A 70-year-old Jewish man was brutally beaten last Friday on the streets of Budapest, the Hungarian RTL Klub television reported.

According to the report, the incident occurred near the local synagogue. According to statements from locals, the culprits threw the man onto the ground and started hitting him in the face while shouting derogatory statements about his Jewish origins.

The synagogue’s rabbi, Rabbi Robert Frohlich told RTL Klub that the old man was making his way home when he was viciously attacked. “They knocked him down, punched him in the face and said they were hurting him because he was Jewish,” he said.

The report said that local police have launched an investigation and are examining the footage from nearby surveillance cameras.

Just last week, Hungary’s retired Chief Rabbi Jozsef Schweitzer was verbally insulted in the street.

Schweitzer, 90, was approached by an unidentified passer-by, who shouted “I hate all Jews.”

In response to the attack, about 120 Hungarians wearing yellow stars inscribed with the word “Jude” lined up in front of Parliament’s office building in central Budapest to express their solidarity with the rabbi.

In another anti-Semitic incident, a renowned Hungarian Jewish actor was termed a "filthy Jew" at a local cultural board meeting in the northern town of Eger last month.