Kurier, November 27, 2020
German original: https://kurier.at/chronik/wien/mit-messer-bedroht-angriff-auf-rabbiner-in-wien-landstrasse/401111229
Woman wielded a knife and tore kippah off the head. Kurz and Nehammer condemn anti-Semitism. No indication of an Islamist background.
A likely anti-Semitically motivated attack on a Rabbi occurred on Thursday in Vienna – Landstrasse. A female attacker is said to have threatened the man at Rennweg with a knife and tore his hat and his kippah off his head.
While doing so, the woman is said to have shouted relevant slogans, and kick the Rabbi in the shin before fleeing. According to police nobody was hurt, and the women is still being searched for.
The man described the woman as about 50 years of age, 170 cm tall, and wearing a grey coat. The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism has taken over the investigation. Interrogations were still pending, thus the police was unable to provide additional information on the act’s background on Friday morning.
But according to the Federal Ministry of the Interior there is currently no information that indicates a Islamist background. In addition, the ministry said that video evidence from public transportation in the area is currently being evaluated. On Friday, Federal Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer discussed the safety situation of the Jewish Community with Oskar Deutsch, President of the Jewish Community Vienna (IKG).
“Disturbing”
Deutsch called the attack on the Rabbi on Thursday night a “disturbing incident” that has unsettled many people. “But the Jewish Community will not be intimidated,” he emphasized on Twitter. The attacked Rabbi, who luckily remained uninjured, is being fully supported by the IKG.
The secretary general of the IKG, Benjamin Nägele, explained that the attack occurred at 4:00 pm at a tramway stop on Rennweg. Witnesses are asked to contact the police. The anti-Semitism reporting office of the IKG informed that the woman shouted “slaughter all Jews,” tore the hat and the kippah of the Rabbi’s head and kicked him.
Protection of Synagogues
Federal Minister of the Interior Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) vehemently condemned the attack: “This attack is an attack on Jewish life in Vienna. Besides the already mandated, additional protection of Synagogues, all measures are taken to quickly resolve this clearly anti-Semitic attack. There is no tolerance when it comes to anti-Semitism – regardless of political or religious motives.“
Kurz Condemns Attack
Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) reacted at once. “I condemn today’s anti-Semitic attack on a Rabbi in Vienna with the strongest indignation. We have to fight anti-Semitism with absolute determination and do everything to enable Jewish life in safety here in Austria. Because a Europe without Jews is no longer Europe,” he informed in writing.
On Friday, representatives of Churches, too, have condemned the attack on a Rabbi. “Anti-Semitism must have no room here. It endangers the peaceful coexistence of all of us,” commented Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, Vienna’s Catholic Archbishop, via Kathpress.“ The Evangelical-Lutheran Bishop Michael Chalupka also said he was “deeply shocked.” Tarafa Baghajati, Chairman of the Initiative of Austrian Muslims (IMÖ) remarked on Twitter: “Such attacks are an attack on all of us.”