(JTA) — A Jewish woman about 60 years old was robbed of her Star of David pendant and insulted for being Jewish after fighting off three purse snatchers near an ATM in Sweden.
The Expressen report on Friday afternoon’s incident in Nybro named neither the woman nor described the three male assailants, but it did say they were in their 20s.
After the woman fought off the attackers, one of them tore off the pendant and “mocked her religion,” according to the police description of the incident based on the woman’s complaint. The men fled and entered a parked car nearby.
Police are treating the incident as a hate crime, Expressen reported.
The number of anti-Semitic hate crimes recorded in Sweden rose to a record high in 2018, jumping 53 percent over the 2016 figures, government statistics show.
The Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention listed 280 anti-Semitic hate crimes in 2018 compared to 182 in the previous surveyed year, which was 2016.
Sweden has about 20,000 Jews.
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