This was sent to me from the UK today. This is scary stuff. Bibi will be travelling to the UK next week to watch Israel play Wales in a football match. I’m sure that will give the haters another reason to kick off.
03 Sep 2015
Dear Member,
Last Shabbat there was an anti-Semitic attack on a member of Dayan Abraham’s community. The young man was walking to Shul in a residential street in Hendon and was approached by two men of Afro-Caribbean appearance. He was threatened physically and was verbally and aggressively attacked with vitriolic anti-Semitic remarks and a Nazi salute. Whilst this was happening a number of members of the Jewish community looked on from their windows but nobody came out to help (other than an offer of a drink after the event).
Thank G-d the aggressors walked away in this instance (although they were heading towards Kinloss Shul). The young man was very shaken but not hurt. Nobody called the police, and what is more upsetting is that an hour or two later a fellow member of his own Shul said to him “So you survived then … I was watching from my window”.
However, one of our Ner members who was walking nearby understood the severity of the situation and persuaded him to at least advise our Security Team and report the incident. He reported the incident to our Security Team Leader outside our Shul about 25 mins after the event. In that time others could have received the same treatment ‘or worse’, and the aggressors were still out and about in a heavily populated Jewish area and heading towards another shul. FYI – The young man (or any other person for that matter) didn’t call the police as it was Shabbat….
It can happen to any of us, young or old, at any time of the day or night, but next time it could be much worse. The following questions and statements were asked after the event:
What should I do?
Should I call the police on Shabbat? (for clarity we asked the Rav what he should have done)
Should I fight or run?
But nothing actually happened to me; or did it?
They were very drunk and I think I could have fought one of them at least (whilst the other stood and watched?)
I don’t know if they had a weapon (knife, screwdriver) in their pockets, I don’t think so, but I’m not sure …
I don’t know if they were meeting more of their friends around the corner. What difference?
I don’t know if they were going to go to Kinloss or any other shul
I don’t think they would attack anybody else, I think I scared them off…
“This is normal. It’s happened before and will probably happen again. We just need to get used to it”
One point about people not phoning the police because it was shabbat. That’s rather strange. Most observant Jews would know that if life is threatened you can break pretty much every other rule of Judaism to try to save someone. I’m not sure why that comes up as a question in this case.
