Violent attacks against Jews in recent weeks have taken place in Los Angeles, England and New York City. In Ireland, a Jewish man had graffiti daubed on his home reading: "Go Home, Jew." A visibly Jewish man was attacked April 12 in Los Angeles by two men with shaved heads “who spoke a language not English or Spanish,” according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is publicizing a $30,000 reward offered by the L.A. City Council for information leading to the apprehension of the attackers. The victim, a 58-year-old, was wearing a yarmulka when he was attacked by the two men, who called him “dirty Jew” and hit him on the side of the head before punching and kicking him once he was down. L.A. Police report a steep rise in anti-Jewish attacks in the San Fernando Valley, with anti-Semitic vandalism and improvised bombs targeting the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus and a private home in West Hills. German Arab Terrorist Sentenced For Stabbing Rabbi A German court has sentenced a German Arab Muslim terrorist to three and a half years in prison for trying to murder a local rabbi with a knife. The court found 23-year-old Sajed Aziz guilty of causing serious injuries in the September attack on Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch. CNN reported that Aziz claimed in court that he had acted in self-defense; that the rabbi had approached him in a “threatening manner.” Aziz was born in Germany to parents from Afghanistan. The German prosecutors said there was not enough evidence that Aziz intended to murder the rabbi for a manslaughter charge. According to the European Jewish News two key witnesses in the case, a Jewish man and the woman who had been walking with Rabbi Gurevitch, refused to testify at the trial because they feared for their safety. Local Jewish officials criticized the light sentence. "After a verdict like this Frankfurt has become more unsafe for Jews," Moshe Mendelzon, who attended the trial with other Orthodox Jews living in Germany, told the European Jewish News. Frankfurt Jewish community President Salomon Korn said the sentence “has given a clear message to potential stabbers. I wonder if this would have been the sentence if there had been a religiously tinged attack on a Christian clergyman.” Aziz was freed Tuesday on bail until the end of all possible appeal proceedings. British Jews Targeted by Attacks Anti-Jewish graffiti covered shops, sidewalks and walls outside four synagogues in the northeast London Clapton Common and Stamford Hill neighborhoods last week. The 40 slogans said things like "Jihad to Israel" and "Jihad to Tel Aviv." David Greenwald, a young member of the Belz synagogue, one of those targeted, told This is London: "This morning I went to synagogue to pray and saw the writing all over everywhere - walls, shops, traffic lights. Everyone feels scared. Here we do not have any problem with Arabs - there has never been anything like this before, but now we are worried." The report quoted another member: "It makes us feel that we are in exile. It could be kids doing it, but even so, it shows something." The other synagogues were Satmar Beth Hamedrash Yetev Lev, Atereth Zvi Beth Hamedrash, and the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations. A day later more graffiti appeared in Bethnal Green. Crown Heights Tensions Simmering After Attack The Crown Heights Jewish community is still reeling following the attack on16-year-old Jewish boy Alon Sherman, who was victim of a severe beating followed by the stealing of his bike, wallet and cell phone. "We're having an uptick in antisemitism and racism in our community that's unconscionable and it's unexcusable," Barry Sugar of the Jewish Leadership Council told New York Channel 1 News. "We are being assaulted and city government is doing little to address our concerns." Terrorist Trial in Seattle Federation Attack Continues The trial of Muslim terrorist Naveed Haq, who killed one woman and injured five others at a local Jewish Federation building, continues as the Pakistani Muslim shooter attempts to convince the jury of an insanity plea. Dayna Klein, a pregnant Jewish woman who worked at the Federation at the time, took the witness stand and described bring shot in the arm by the terrorist after she called 911. The terrorist shot toward the four-month-pregnant woman’s stomach, but she shielded herself with her arm and the bullet miraculously lodged in her arm, sparing the unborn child. Klein recalled crawling out of the room she was hiding in once she felt the coast was clear and finding co-worker Layla Bush “lying on her stomach, bleeding from her abdomen.” Klein recalled Bush trying to stop the bleeding from her wound using the baby clothes a fellow worker had bought Klein as a baby gift. On her way out of the building she passed co-worker Pamela Waechter, shot dead from behind as she tried to escape the terrorist, who was ranting about Jews and Israel. Haq’s defense lawyers are trying to plead insanity despite evidence of calculated premeditation. Haq bought guns and researched Jewish organizations ahead of the attack. He also, according to Klein, made a statement to the 911 operator when he took the phone away from her. "He began to state that...he would like to talk to [television talk-show host] Larry King and the Jews... [who] need to get out of Lebanon and Iraq," she said. Forensic psychologist J. Robert Wheeler testified, for the prosecution, that Haq told him in their interview. “I just got it in my mind to do some political activism, so I just hopped in my truck. I got in my head to do a mission. On my way to the federation I decided I was going to take hostages.” Haq searched for his target on Google, first searching "AIPAC in Sacramento," then "future AIPAC events," "evangelists," "national evangelical events" and "AIPAC in Seattle," which brought him eventually to the web site of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle. He then searched "current Jewish Federation events," seemingly seeking to carry out a mass-casualty attack. Seeing none in the immedtae future, he decided to embark on a three hour trip to the Federation office. In Ireland: Go Home, Jew A Jewish man living in Ireland complained to police last week of Nazi graffiti on his home. According to the Irish Independent, Herb Meyer's home on the Dublin Road in Tuam was spray-painted with swastikas and slogans such as “Go Home, Jew.” Meyer said he wasn’t aware of many people who even knew he was Jewish, as he does not dress identifiably like a Jew. According to the Independent, Meyer “and his partner Armida Walsh, a Tuam native,” were intending to move to London to be near relatives, but they may revise their plans due to the attack. The paper did not elaborate whether the revised plans may involve going to Israel.
