Police in Perth are investigating a violent attack on four Orthodox Jewish teenagers.
Among the victims was the son of Marcus Solomon, the U.S.-ordained rabbi of the Dianella Synagogue, one of several shuls in the Western Australian capital.
Solomon told the Australian Jewish News that his son, along with one female and two male friends were walking home May 30 after Shabbat dinner at the synagogue when they were accosted by a mob of youths.
Solomon said the boys were kicked and bashed in the face as the assailants taunted the teenagers with anti-Semitic slurs. The girl and one boy fled while the two other boys sought safety in a nearby home, according to Solomon, a vice president of Carmel School, the only Jewish school in the state.
But the attackers followed them and defaced the car belonging to the family where the two boys took refuge.
“The community is in shock and outrage,” Solomon told the newspaper. “I’ve never heard of such an event in Western Australia.”
The assailants have not yet been identified. Police have been unwilling to confirm it was a racially motivated attack.
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