Antisemitic attack in Berlin: Rabbi Aviezer Kantor, 48, who is part of the Chabad community in Berlin and serves as a supervisor at the city's Chabad house, was attacked on Shabbat while walking with his children - on their way back from synagogue.
The attacker, a 31-year-old young man of Arab origin, blocked his path and began cursing and threatening him.
According to Berlin police, as reported in the newspaper Bild, the verbal confrontation quickly escalated into physical violence. The suspect attacked the father and during the incident spat in his face and in the faces of his two children, who were standing next to him.
An Israeli who witnessed the attack on Öland Street in the Charlottenburg district, attacked the attacker and held him until the police arrived.
Berlin police confirmed that they had captured the attacker and he was taken into custody pending the conclusion of the investigation.
The incident coincided with the publication of the annual report by the Federal Association for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS), which is funded by the German government and operates in 11 federal states.
The report shows that during 2025, approximately 8,700 hate incidents against Jews were recorded in Germany, most of them in the context of the war in Gaza. According to the report's editors, hatred is often directed at Jews wherever they are, regardless of their personal or political positions.
Among the documented incidents was the attack on an ultra-Orthodox rabbi in the state of Hesse, who was beaten and robbed in front of his children while the attackers accused him of being involved in the war in Gaza.
The report also describes serious threats on social media. In one case, a Jewish woman received a photo on Facebook of a Zyklon B gas canister - used by the Nazis to exterminate Jews in the Holocaust - alongside the threatening caption: "Still in stock.".
The report also shows that four incidents were classified as "incidents of extreme violence" over the past year. The most serious of these occurred in February 2025, when a Spanish tourist was stabbed at the Memorial to the Jews of Europe in Berlin by a terrorist who mistakenly thought he was a Jew. The tourist was seriously injured but survived. In March, the attacker was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
