A young Orthodox Jew was attacked on his way to the synagogue on Bruchstrasse in the city of Lucerne.
The alleged perpetrator in this case, a 46-year-old Swiss man, initially insulted the victim before punching him in the face.
A video of a similar attack is also circulating on social media, with the victim of the first incident confirming that it was the same perpetrator, Kreutner added.
In the clip, the alleged perpetrator insults another man and also makes the “Hitler salute.” After an innocent person intervened, “further physical violence may have been prevented,” Kreutner said.
He believes the second incident occurred simultaneously with the first. Kreutner also emphasised that this was one of the most serious antisemitic incidents in Lucerne.
A spokesman for the Lucerne police confirmed that a heavily intoxicated 46-year-old Swiss man had been arrested shortly before 7:15 p.m. during a search on Pfistergasse. The relevant investigations are ongoing.
Since the Hamas terrorist attack on Israeli civilians in the south of the country on 7 October 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, antisemitic incidents have surged sharply in Switzerland, including both left-wing, Israel-related antisemitism and Islamist-motivated anti-Jewish sentiment.
The Swiss Federation of Israelite Communities has reported a tenfold increase in antisemitic incidents. The Swiss Intercommunal Coordination against Antisemitism and Defamation (Organisation Coordination Intercommunautaire contre l’Antisémitisme et la Diffamation) has also recorded a significant rise in antisemitic occurrences.
This highlights that antisemitism cannot be seen as a problem of political extremists alone but is, in fact, deeply rooted in Swiss society, according to the Swiss Confederation’s Office for Combating Racism.
