BARCELONA, Spain (JTA) — A man dressed in military attire attacked the ancient Synagogue Mayor in Barcelona and an employee there.
On the morning of Jan. 30, the vandal used a baseball bat to smash signs outside the building in the old Jewish Quarter identifying the synagogue. The employee, who approached the man, was beaten with the bat, the European Press reported.
Passers-by alerted the local police, who responded quickly and arrested the man. A spokesperson for Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police force, said police were investigating.
The injured employee was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for an arm fracture and blows to the head.
It was the fourth anti-Semitic incident to take place in Barcelona in the past few weeks, since fighting erupted in the Gaza Strip. In a Jan. 12 incident, the windows of the Chabad House in Barcelona were broken and the word "assassins" spray-painted on the building.
“It’s all very sad,” said Nily Schorr, a spokeswoman for the Federation of Jewish Communities of Spain. “I’m extremely concerned about the overall attitude here, even among intellectuals.”
The Jewish community lived in the Jewish Quarter until a pogrom in 1391.
