Police in Germany are investigating a Jewish man’s report of being punched in the face and abused with anti-Semitic language while walking home in Berlin early Saturday, The Associated Press reports.
A Berlin police news release said the 41-year-old man wearing a kippah passed three other men in Duerer Square at about 2:15 a.m. One of three punched him in the face, knocking him against a shop window, and added an anti-Semitic insult, the man told police when he reported the incident at a local precinct.
He was taken to a hospital, where he was treated and released. Police said the men have not been located.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her weekly video podcast on Saturday to condemn anti-Jewish statements heard at recent protests over the recent fighting between Israel and terrorists in Gaza.
Merkel said that “whoever takes hatred of Jews to our streets places himself outside our constitutional order.”
The German government said recently that the number of registered anti-Semitic hate crimes in Germany hit a new upward trend in 2020.
The authorities have logged at least 2,275 crimes with an anti-Semitic background until the end of January 2021. Some 55 of those were acts of violence.
Anti-Semitic crimes have risen steadily in Germany in recent years. According to data released last May, Germany recorded the highest number of anti-Semitic crimes nationwide since 2001 in 2019, with the vast majority of the anti-Jewish crimes reported ascribed to far-right wing perpetrators.