A 43-year-old woman wearing a Star of David necklace was attacked by two men in Berlin during Rosh Hashanah celebrations, in what police are investigating as an antisemitic assault.
Berlin police said Saturday that the woman was taken to a hospital for treatment after suffering several cuts to her hand.
According to German news agency DPA, the two men directed antisemitic insults at the woman in the middle of the night on Torstrasse in Mitte, Berlin’s central district. Police said one of the suspects then attacked her with a broken glass bottle. The woman suffered cuts to her hand as she tried to defend herself.
Police said the two men had initially approached her at around 2:30 a.m. and confronted her over the Star of David necklace she was wearing.
The state security division of Berlin’s criminal police has taken over the investigation. German newspaper Bild reported that no suspects had been arrested.
The incident occurred during Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which began Friday evening. Berlin’s historic New Synagogue on Oranienburger Strasse is located near Torstrasse, though it was not clear whether the woman had attended services there earlier.
Antisemitism rises in Germany
Nearly half of Germany’s Jewish communities experienced antisemitic incidents over the past year, according to a survey by the Central Council of Jews in Germany published by Die Zeit in May.
Of 102 communities surveyed, 46 reported incidents including threatening phone calls, hate speech or damage to religious buildings.
(Photo: AP Photo/Markus Schreibe)
The data was collected as part of a series of surveys conducted since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre in Israel, which Jewish community leaders in Germany have described as a turning point in the antisemitism directed at them.
Sixty-eight percent said their lives had become less safe since the attack, with many describing the situation as a “new normal.”
The climate has led some Jews to avoid displaying visible Jewish symbols in public, while demand for support services has risen by 63%, according to the survey.