Jewish Student Viciously Attacked Outside Synagogue

A Jewish student was about to enter the grounds of a synagogue in Hamburg, Germany, on Sunday, where worshippers were marking the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, when someone brutally attacked him. The 26-year-old, who was apparently beaten with a folding spade, was taken to the hospital with head injuries that the New York Times describes as "grave." A 29-year-old German man of Kazakh origin was arrested, the AP reports; he was wearing army fatigues and Al-Jazeera reports he had a piece of paper bearing a swastika in his pocket.

Anti-Semitic crimes are on the rise in Germany, having nearly doubled over the past three years. "This is not a one-off case, this is vile anti-Semitism and we all have to stand against it," Germany's foreign minister said in response to the latest attack. Added the country's justice minister, "The hatred against Jews is a disgrace for our country. We have to further confront agitation against Jews and be there more for the victims of hatred and violence." "The question is: What have we not learned since Halle?" a Hamburg rabbi asks, referring to the white supremacist attack on a synagogue in Germany last year on Yom Kippur. (More antisemitism stories.)