BERLIN (JTA) — A 23-year-old American said he was hit in the face in Berlin after telling a group harassing him that he was Jewish.
The man, described as a tourist, suffered a black eye in the incident, which he reported via a police website, according to news reports. Police are investigating the Tuesday night attack as an anti-Semitic crime.
The episode occurred in a park in the Steglitz district of the German capital at about 9 p.m. when three people in a group of 10 began to harass him. One reportedly asked the tourist about his religion, then hit him in the face after he answered that he was Jewish.
The incident comes just days after an attack on a 20-year-old man who was wearing a kippah in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin. He was harassed and the perpetrator tried unsuccessfully to spit on him. The case also is under investigation.
In April, the Berlin-based Research and Information Centre on Anti-Semitism said there had been a 14 percent increase in anti-Jewish incidents in Berlin over the previous year, when 951 anti-Semitic incidents were reported.
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