A yeshiva student was the victim of an apparent anti-Semitic attack in Australia.
Alon Tam, 17, was walking home from a kosher restaurant in a Melbourne suburb heavily populated by Jews on Saturday night when two men armed with baseball bats confronted him. He told the Australian Associated Press the men yelled “Jew, you deserve to die,” as they beat him.
Tam sustained injuries to his torso, arms and shoulder, and is expected to have X-rays to determine the extent of the damage, according to the Australian Jewish News.
“This is Melbourne, you don’t expect things like this to happen,” he told the newspaper. “I’ve been called a f***ing Jew, a bloody Jew on public transport, but I didn’t report it [before].”
In a joint statement, the Jewish Community Council of Victoria and the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission condemned the attack.
“We are outraged at this violent anti-Semitic attack which was perpetrated in the heart of the Jewish community,” the statement said. “Members of the Jewish community should not be subjected to these sorts of attacks under any circumstances.”
The incident began at Glicks, a popular bagel bar, about 45 minutes before Tam was attacked, according to Ephraim Manshari, 17, a Yeshivah College student who was working at the restaurant.
He told AAP he saw the attackers throw a chair through the window and punch a customer. Manshari said the men returned later with baseball bats and attacked Tam as he was heading home
Last year, the Executive Council of Australian Jewry logged more than 440 anti-Semitic incidents in Australia.
