Attacked in Vienna for Being a Jew

By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach

On Friday evening, just before Shabbat, in the city where Adolf Hitler absorbed his genocidal antisemitism, I was assaulted by a mob of Islamist, pro-Hamas, Israel-hating thugs. My crime? Wearing a kippah and tzitzit — being openly, unapologetically Jewish in Vienna.

I had come to Austria’s capital with my wife Debbie for what was supposed to be a beautiful Shabbat in one of Europe’s great capitals, rich in music and history. Instead, I left with the bruises — physical and emotional — of an antisemitic attack that brought me face to face with the violent hatred Jews have endured here for centuries and which is spreading like the Black Death all around Europe.

A Peaceful Stroll Turns into a Mob Attack

Debbie and I were walking in the very center of town near Stephansplatz when we stumbled upon an anti-Israel “Free Palestine” rally. Dozens of people were shouting, waving flags, and spewing venom at Israel. I am used to hearing the horrible lies of Jews, like the Nazis, committing genocide. I have spoken out against antisemitism for decades, in the media, in my books, and on the streets. But I never imagined that in broad daylight, in the heart of Vienna which welcome Hitler as a savior in March, 1938, I would be physically assaulted.

The moment the mob spotted me — a Jew, unmistakably so — the atmosphere changed. Faces twisted in rage. Several men broke from the crowd, surrounding me, telling me to leave. I simply asserted my right to stay in a public square like hundreds of other tourists.

Then it started. They came right at me in the face, “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.” Of all Jews, that is. A clear call for another Holocaust of the Jews which had all started in Vienna. Then they came and screamed right in my face, “’Free Palestine,” the new global slogan for “Heil Hitler.”

Suddenly, I was kicked. I felt degraded, dehumanized, and abused. I turned around to see who had kicked me. Within seconds. Hands grabbed at my shirt and tzitzit, pulling me into a scrum where I was surrounded by fanatically dangerous Islamists with ferocious Jew-hatred in their eyes. The screams of shocked tourists watching the assault on an innocent Jewish bystander reverberated throughout the crowd.

Debbie, horrified, watched as I kicked, manhandled, and assaulted. The assault was not just physical; it was an attempt to strip me of my dignity, to tell me that in this city, in this continent, Jews should have no presence.

I have never hidden my Jewishness, not in Oxford, not in New York, not in Jerusalem, and not in Arab countries like Dubia and Abu Dhabi, which I adore and frequently visit. I certainly wasn’t about to start in Vienna, the city of Hitler’s antisemitic birth under viciously infamous antisemitic Mayor Karl Lueger.

But that commitment almost cost me dearly.

The Police Arrive — and Threaten to Arrest Me

Suddenly, I was surrounded by about 10 police officers. I expected protection. Instead, I was treated as an aggressor. An officer barked at me to calm down or I would be arrested. Calm down? Did you see that I was just assaulted for being a Jew? Is that how you treat victims of assault? They demanded identification. Debbie tried to explain that we had been attacked. The police were utterly cold, menacing, and unmoved. I searched for my kippa. It had been knocked off my head. My glasses were broken. My shirt destroyed.

I could not believe that right after standing passively as a Jew in Vienna, bothering absolutely no one and suddenly being threatened with murder simply wearing a kippa, I was now being threatened with arrest by the Austrian police. Was I in some strange and dark time machine that took me back to the Anschluss of 1938, Hitler’s annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany that welcomed like a carnival by residents of Vienna?

My wife was pale and shaking. Then some real heroes arrived in the shape of two different American tourists – Christians – wearing crosses. One was a woman who was horror-struck by what was happening to me as an American Jew in Austria. She told my wife that she had filmed the enter incident and quickly sent it to her on WhatsApp. Then, a retired hero California cop, on vacation, his wife also wearing a cross, came forward while I was surrounded by the police and told them that he was a witness to the entire assault and wanted to testify. The police told him he wasn’t needed. Trying to gather my bearings, I thanked him profusely and insisted he come into the circle.

The police told us we had to go with them to police station. It was minutes until Shabbat. n Jewish law, we avoid writing or using electronics on Shabbat unless life is at stake. Here, I had to choose between my religious observance and defending myself against police whom I still could not make out were either planning to arrest me for my very presence as a Jew or to take a report as a victim of assault. They would not say. What they did say was that I had no choice. If I resisted any police orders I would be subject to arrest.

For two long hours, I sat in that station, on Shabbat, as officers took a statement from me. They read me my rights. Was I going to be arrested? No, suddenly they told me it was to take a report as a victim of assault. It sure as hell did not feel that way. They remained cold and aggressive throughout. When a female police officer asked me to show her the videos from my phone of the attack, and I fumbled with the phone explaining that it was Shabbat and I could not be certain which was the correct video, she accused me of playing games and trying to conceal evidence.

They demanded my documents again. I was humiliated.

The hero police officer from California was just outside with his wife. He had given up his entire night in Vienna just to save me. And slowly, as the police saw the multiple videos, the tide began to somewhat turn. These witnesses had filmed the entire assault. They stayed for hours to testify, his wife alongside him, explaining to the Austrian police exactly what had happened.

Only then did the officers seem to grudgingly acknowledge that I was the victim. But even now, I have no idea if a single one of my attackers was arrested or even questioned by the police. I asked the police officers for their names. They refused. A first name? They refused. A bade ID number? They complied, in a scribbled note that I could barely read. Not one of them gave me a police card with a phone number. Hundreds had seen me being assaulted. Were any of them detained, questioned, or even warned? I doubt it.

The police took a lengthy statement from me, translated into English using Chat GPT, and told me it had to be signed.

At the end of the two hours, the supervising officer who had been unnecessarily cold and even threatening to me, came to the interview room and was warmer. Perhaps he had googled me. I don’t know. He explained that he was also a minority who had immigrated to Austria. He said he understood the threat to the Jewish community. He and I shook hands. But why then did they treat me for hours as a would-be criminal?

My wife and I left dazed and deeply traumatized and started the hour and a half walk back to our lodging.

The Echoes of Vienna’s Past

This is Vienna. The Vienna of Karl Lueger, the antisemitic mayor who inspired Hitler himself and whose statue – unbelievably – still stands in 2025 in the city center, glorifying a man who made Jew-hatred genocidal.

This is the Vienna where, in March 1938, 1 million Austrians filled the Heldenplatz square outside the Hofburg Palace to cheer Hitler as he proclaimed the Anschluss — Austria’s merger into Nazi Germany.

The mob that attacked me did not come wearing swastikas. Their flags bore slogans about “Palestine.” Their chants claimed to be about “justice.” But the hatred in their eyes was the same old poison that has stained Europe’s streets for centuries.

When I was shoved and kicked, when Debbie’s mental and emotional state was shaken to the core (she and I are still recovering), I could almost hear the roar of that 1938 crowd. Vienna may boast fine architecture, classical music, and imperial grandeur, but just beneath the surface, the old hatreds are alive and well.

Europe’s Dangerous Illusion

Europe likes to tell itself that it has learned from its past — that “Never Again” is more than a slogan. But how can Jews feel safe here when mobs can assault a Jew in broad daylight and police possibly treat us as the criminals?

In city after city, from Paris to London to Brussels, anti-Israel rallies have become open calls for violence against Jews. “Death to the Jews” is thinly disguised as “From the river to the sea.” The world looks away. The police stand back — or, as in my case, turn their suspicion on the victim. Gosh, if you Jews were just not walking the streets, or at least had the decency to hide your Kippot and Magen Davids, then you wouldn’t be such trouble-makers.

It is a dangerous illusion to believe that Europe has inoculated itself against antisemitism. The virus is mutating, finding new hosts, new slogans, new excuses. But the symptoms are the same: fear, humiliation, physical assault, and a message that Jews are not welcome.

The Personal Toll

Debbie has been through many tense moments with me — heated public debates, protests, and, since October 7th, constant public attacks on me and even her, often caught on camera and watched by tens of millions as antisemites identify me – “America’s Rabbi” – as the face of Israel defense in the United States.  But I have never seen her so shaken. The fear in her eyes as we sat in that police station will haunt me for a long time.

Being attacked is bad enough. Being attacked while your spouse is forced to watch — powerless to stop it — is worse. Being attacked, and then having your spouse watch as police threaten you with arrest, is something else entirely.

For a rabbi, for a man who believes in speaking out for truth, the degradation was perhaps the hardest part. I am used to defending and fighting for others. That night, aside from two brave American Christian tourists, I had to defend myself.

A Call for Accountability

I want my attackers brought to justice. I want to know that Austria will not tolerate mobs assaulting Jews in its capital. I want to know that police officers will be trained to recognize antisemitic violence and protect victims, not persecute them.

I started coming to Austria and Vienna in the early 90’s to visit my beloved friend Simon Wiesenthal, the great Nazi hunters whom I had hosted at Oxford University before 1000 students. He lived fearlessly in the belly of the beast, seeking out the Austrian and German monsters who had slaughtered six million innocent Jews. But the situation of the Jews in Austria has greatly deteriorated since his sad passing in September, 2005.

This is not just about me. Any Jew, any person visibly connected to Israel, could have been in my place that night. And if Austria allows such attacks to pass without serious consequences, it is sending a clear message to its Jewish community: You are on your own.

We know where that message leads. History has shown us. I’m hoping that the more friendly posture adopted by the police toward the end of the two hour interrogation was genuine and that they sincerely want to protect me. The next few weeks will tell. If my assailant – clearly identifiable from numerous videos – is not arrested, then we’ll know that I was played.

Never Again Means Now

When Jews say “Never Again,” we are not talking about some abstract lesson from a distant past. We mean right now — when a Jew is kicked and manhandled by his tzitzit in Vienna for wearing a kippah. We mean right now — when police in a European capital treat the victim of an antisemitic assault as a suspect. We mean right now — when the shadows of Karl Lueger and Adolf Hitler still loom over the streets.

I will not be silent. I will tell this story to every audience I can reach. I will write it in every paper that will publish it. I have already reached out to my friends at the highest levels of the American government and the Trump cabinet. And I will call on every Austrian official, every Jewish organization, every friend of human rights to demand action.

Because if we do not speak, the silence will be filled with the chants of mobs — in Vienna, in Paris, in London, and in New York where Zoran Mamdani, a Karl Lueger wannabe, is set to become Mayor.

I am a rabbi. My faith teaches me to love peace. But it also commands me to hate evil and to resist it. The men who attacked me are part of an evil that has claimed Jewish lives for centuries. They are defiling the great, peace-loving religion of Islam and destroying its name the world over. How can my God-fearing Muslim brothers and sisters allow it? It must be confronted. It must be defeated.

Vienna must choose: Will it be the city of Mozart, of Schubert, of Mahler — or will it remain the city where Jews are attacked in the streets and statues of Jew-haters stand tall?

For my part, I will not back down. I will wear my kippah in Vienna and all over Europe again. I will walk those streets standing tall (well, however tall a five-foot-six Jew can be) again. And I will make sure the world knows what happened there.

Austria, the world is watching. For God’s sake, do the right thing.

Shmuley Boteach, “America’s Rabbi,” is labeled by The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Chat GPT as the most famous Rabbi in America, by the New York Observer as “the most famous orthodox Jew in the world,” and by the Jerusalem Post as one of the 50 most influential Jews alive. He is the only Rabbi to have ever won The London Times Preacher of the Year” competition and remains its record holder. He served as Rabbi at Oxford University for 11 years where he built the Oxford University L’Chaim Society into the second largest student organization in Oxford’s history. Follow him on Instagram, X, Facebook and TikTok @RabbiShmuley.

Источник: Attacked in Vienna for Being a Jew – by Rabbi Shmuley