Kipa wearer assaulted in Australia

A 27-year-old Jewish man wearing a kipa was assaulted by six young men on a Melbourne train.Australian newspapers reported that the victim, Danny Pollack, said the assailants called him a “f–-ing Jew” before hitting him on the head with a newspaper and trying to trip him as he attempted to move. Pollack said the olive-skinned men all appeared to be about 20 years old.”Unfortunately I’m used to people insulting me because I’m Jewish or because I’m wearing my yarmulke,” he told an Australian radio station about Tuesday’s incident.”But it’s really the first time that I’ve actually been physically assaulted, so I was really a bit shocked and shaken up by it.”Officials say anti-Semitic attacks in Australia are on the rise, pointing to last year’s assault of a Jewish man by a group of soccer players. Manny Waks, executive officer of Australia’s B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, said the recent spate of attacks is troubling.”We do not want to get to a situation like in some parts of Europe where Jews fear wearing traditional Jewish items such as a yarmulke, as it may make them a target of anti-Semitism,” he said.