It looks like Mel Gibson is not the only drunk Australian to take things out on the Jooooos.
A Jewish man was racially abused then bashed in front of his two young children by a busload of country footballers drunk after a day at the races.
Police are investigating the savage attack on Menachem Vorchheimer, 33, by players from the Ocean Grove Football Club.
About 20 footballers had just left Caulfield racecourse in a mini-bus.
Mr Vorchheimer said the men yelled “F— off Jews” and “Go the Nazis” before motioning as if they were shooting a machine gun at him and his children.
He told the Herald Sun his children, aged 6 and 3, were screaming and crying during the attack that left him with cuts and bruises to the face.
Witnesses surrounded the bus and stopped it from driving off until police arrived.
Ocean Grove Football Club president Michael Vines confirmed players from his club were involved in the incident.
“Like any sporting club at our level we expect our players to behave responsibly,” he said.
The trouble began when Mr Vorchheimer and his children were walking along Balaclava Rd, Caulfield, about 6.30pm on Saturday.
Mr Vorchheimer was wearing traditional Jewish dress including a shabbat hat and a yamulka, the skull cap worn by Jewish men.
As the minibus drove past, some of the players were laughing and yelling racist abuse.
When the bus stopped at a red light, Mr Vorchheimer went to the driver’s door.
“I wanted to find out where they were from so that . . . I could make approaches to that organisation,” he said.
But the bus driver appeared to ignore him and took off when the light turned green.
As the bus drove past, two men reached out the back window, grabbed Mr Vorchheimer’s hat and skull cap and hurled more abuse.
A driver who saw the incident pulled in front of the bus and stopped it.
Mr Vorchheimer said the men threw one of his hats out the bus window but when he asked for the other hat he was attacked.
“I was pulled toward the open window and then punched by a right hand into my left eye by a passenger on the bus. I fell back and was in enormous pain.”
Mr Vorchheimer said he felt blood running down his face as the men threw his other hat out the window.
“Meanwhile my kids are on the sidewalk crying and screaming,” he said.
He said witnesses surrounded the bus and stopped it from moving.
Mr Vorchheimer said he sat in front of the bus and said. “You’re not going ’til the police come.”
When St Kilda police arrived they took details from the footballers and witnesses. They confirmed the men had been to Caulfield races.
Mr Vorchheimer was treated at Cabrini Hospital. He said he had suffered headaches and nausea since the attack and his children had undergone counselling.
He said he had no doubt he was attacked because of his faith.
Caulfield MP Helen Shardey condemned the attack. She said the AFL needed to do more to educate footballers at all levels about behaviour.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Grahame Leonard said the attack was the fifth unprovoked assault on a member of the Jewish community in Victoria this year.
A worrying incident to be sure, but it is encouraging that witnesses stopped the bus from driving off until police arrived.
Update: While the football club president has apologized, the coach has decided to adopt the palestinian tactic of lying.
However club coach Matthew Sproule said Mr Vorchheimer’s hats were removed “accidentally” in a tussle through the bus window.
“The driver … did not know the person at the back had the hat. We realised the person was chasing us down the street for his hat. We pulled over and we put the hat to the side, then we got run off the road by another person who wouldn’t let us move after his hat was returned,” he told Southern Cross Radio.
“We don’t know (who threw the punch) with all the commotion that was going on at the time.
“At the time the man in question asked for an apology and we gave an apology to him and he said, ‘No, it’s 10 seconds too late. I’m calling the police.'”
