An Arab man armed with a knife approached a group of yeshiva students while shouting antisemitic insults and 'free Palestine' in Lucerne, Switzerland on Saturday, Jonathan Kreutner, Secretary General of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG) confirmed to the Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
None of the students were hurt as a passerby intervened before the attack could become physical, and the man fled the scene before police arrived.
Kreutner told the Post that the man approached the students and screamed insults such as 'death to the Jews' and 'Free Palestine' and spat on them. The students reported that the man was threatening them with a knife, which the police are now working to confirm.
There was an issue in that the students were unable to sign documents or travel to the police station due to it being Shabbat. They offered to come to the station after the end of Shabbat on Saturday night, but were told the station would be closed at night and on Sunday, meaning the next possible time would be Monday - allowing the preparator time to flee.
"It is very worrying that Jewish people can no longer walk through the streets without being attacked," said Kreutner. He has spoken to the students and says they are "scared, for sure, but doing okay."
He told the Post that Lucerne police and the prosecutor are taking the case "very seriously" but have not yet identified the attacker. Spitting on someone is considered a physical assault in Switzerland, and antisemitic comments violate the anti-racism provision of the Swiss Criminal Code (Article 261bis). Threatening someone with a knife - if CCTV shows this to be the case - breaks Article 180 of the Swiss Criminal Code.
Switzerland's antisemitism spiked after the October 7 massacre
"What's happening now never happened before October 7," Kreutner told the Post. "It was never experienced before October 7 in Switzerland, and now there are so many cases in such a small space of time."
In March this year, SIG released a study into antisemitic incidents in Switzerland, revealing an increase in such incidents of 42.5% from 2023 to 2024.
In 2024, SIG recorded 221 antisemitic incidents compared to the 155 recorded incidents in 2023. In 2022, there were only 57 recorded antisemitic incidents.
11 of the antisemitic incidents in 2024 were physical attacks, including the stabbing of a 50-year-old Orthodox Jew by a 15-year-old Tunisian immigrant in Zurich as well as the attack on a religious Jew in Davos.