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By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News
A University of Pittsburgh student was beaten by a group of men Friday in an attack the police and FBI are investigating as a possible hate crime.
The young man, who was walking near the campus around 2 AM, told police that he was accosted by eight men who had noticed his Star of David necklace.
After a brief exchange of words, the police said in a statement, three of the men began punching and kicking him. He was lucky to escape only with bruising and a split lip after a bystander intervened.
Rabbi Shmuli Rothstein, the head of the university’s Chabad house, told CBS News that the student had told him that the men first began shouting such epithets at him as “F***ing Jews,” and “Free Palestine,” and “from then it just got worse.”
He said the student tried telling them to leave him alone, that he just wanted to go home, and “you’re just being stupid and dumb.”
Rothstein was horrified by the account, saying, “Seeing someone’s religion should not trigger something inside you to beat the junk out of them. That is a hate crime.”
Since the incident happened off university property, the campus police are not involved, but they posted a campus safety alert about the assault which described the attackers as men between the ages of 20 and 24.
The administration reacted to the assault in a statement saying that it “unequivocally condemns antisemitism,” and that “Any violence or antisemitic acts against our community will not be tolerated.”
Shawn Brokos, Director of Community Security in the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, told the news channel that with the upcoming Jewish High Holidays and anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 invasion and massacre in Israel, it was time “to stop inciting the Jewish students, stop targeting them. It has to stop.”
Brokos said her division would be increasing its protection of local Jewish institutions over this period.
This is the second antisemitic assault on a U. of Pittsburgh student in just over a month.
On August 29, a keffiyeh-clad man later identified as Jarrett Buba (52) injured two Jewish students who had been walking with a group of friends from one Friday night Jewish event to another on campus.
The police complaint described how Buba attacked the pair from behind with a bottle, lacerating one on the cheek and the other on the back of the neck. One of the victims tackled him and held him until the police arrived.
He has been charged with two counts of simple assault, two of aggravated assault, two of recklessly endangering another person, two of harassment and one count of resisting arrest.
In the current case, the authorities have released a description of the three assailants and have asked for the public’s help in finding them.
