Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was punched and sprayed with what appeared to be pepper spray by an unidentified man in downtown Warsaw on Saturday, but escaped without injuries from what police said may have been an anti-Semitic attack.

Faithful wave flags of different countries during the meeting with Pope Benedict XVI in the Blonia park at Krakow, Poland.
Photo: AP

Schudrich said he was heading to a Sabbath lunch near Warsaw's main synagogue with a group of people when a young man yelled out "Poland for Poles!"

"That's a well-known pre-World War II slogan which basically means 'Jews, get out of Poland,' and I didn't like hearing it, so I approached the gentleman to ask him why he said such things, and his reaction was to punch me in the chest," Schudrich told AP.

"I was going to hit him back, but before I had a chance to hit him he sprayed me with some kind of spray - maybe pepper spray."

Schudrich said his eyes still burned from the spray but that he was otherwise uninjured.

The man, who quickly fled, was being sought by police, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tomasz Sklodowski. An image of the attacker's face was produced with the help of witnesses and distributed to police throughout the city, he said.

Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich.
Photo: Channel 2

"We're treating this as a possible anti-Semitic provocation, although it may have simply been an act of hooliganism," Sklodowski said. "The fact that it happened just as the pope is visiting Poland and going to Auschwitz means the attack could have had an anti-Semitic motive, that it was meant to tarnish the image of Poland."

Schudrich disputed the possibility that the attack was at all connected with a visit by Pope Benedict XVI, calling it "a false interpretation."

But he linked the attack to what he said was a rise of intolerance connected to a new governing coalition that includes the League of Polish Families, or LPR, a small right-wing party with ideological ties to a prewar anti-Semitic party and a radical youth wing.

"With the LPR in the government, ultra-rightists who felt somehow constrained in their behavior now feel they can do whatever they want," Schudrich said.