Itongadol.- Alt-Treptow, Berlin – Unknown perpetrators kicked and beat a 21-year-old Jewish man wearing a kippah after slurring him with antisemitic insults.
The victim, identified as Oliver Geffers of Bonn, was slightly injured in the Tuesday evening attack but did not seek medical help, according to the police report on the incident. The state criminal police agency is investigating.
Geffers is not Orthodox but wears a kippah in public because he strongly identifies as Jewish and believes Jews should not be afraid to show their identity, a source close to Geffers told JTA. Geffers works as a volunteer at a refugee center in Cologne and said he does not experience open antisemitism from refugees, according to the source.
According to the police report, the incident occurred Tuesday at approximately 9:30 p.m. in a park along Puschkinallee, a main thoroughfare. The victim said the three attackers appeared to be Arabic. They commented on his yarmulke and insulted him with antisemitic comments. One of them then beat and kicked him, he reported, before all the men fled.