A Canadian Jewish student who was allegedly threatened with a knife and punched while conducting religious outreach in Melbourne returned to his work after giving a statement to police.
Yitzi Loewenthal, 18, was visiting Jewish residents and businesses in Bentleigh with another student on Friday afternoon when the confrontation occurred.
Loewenthal studies at Yeshiva Gedola Melbourne and spends Fridays conducting outreach around Centre Road and nearby streets. The students help Jewish residents put on tefillin and distribute Shabbat candles and challah.
Loewenthal said he approached a 69-year-old man on a residential street at about 1.35pm and asked whether he was Jewish.
The man allegedly responded angrily and told him to stop bothering him. Loewenthal said he wished the man a good day and continued visiting homes with his partner.
He alleged the man remained nearby, watched the students and later approached him while holding a pocket knife.
“Coming out of the house, this man walked towards me,” Loewenthal told Channel 7.
“He was yelling at me. He was saying, ‘I want to kill you. I want to kill your friend.’ He was cursing, and he had a knife in his hand.”
Loewenthal said he raised his hands and walked backwards in an attempt to calm the situation. The man allegedly continued making threats before punching him in the stomach.
Loewenthal called triple zero at 1.48pm. Police detained a 69-year-old man shortly afterwards and seized two pocket knives during a search.
No charges had been announced by Tuesday, and the investigation remained ongoing.
After speaking to police, Loewenthal collected his tefillin and continued visiting homes before the start of Shabbat.
“Australia is known to be this very safe country, and I’m an overseas student,” he said.
“I chose to come here because it has a great reputation, and I was attacked for the way I look, for my religion, which was shocking.”
Loewenthal said he would not allow the alleged attack to stop him practising his faith or helping other Jewish people.
“What I believe is that the answer to violence is not violence,” he said. “The answer to violence is kindness.”
The Executive Council of Australian Jewry said the incident showed the growing sense of insecurity experienced by visibly Jewish Australians.
“It is deeply disturbing that young people peacefully going about their lives are allegedly threatened and assaulted simply because they are visibly Jewish,” ECAJ said.
The organisation said the alleged attack was part of a broader pattern of antisemitism that had left Jewish Australians feeling increasingly unsafe in public.
“Hatred that goes unchecked inevitably leads to intimidation and violence,” it said.
ECAJ praised Victoria Police for its response and said any person responsible should face the full force of the law if the allegations were substantiated.
It also commended the two students for continuing to express their Jewish identity openly following the incident.
Victorian Attorney-General Sonya Kilkenny said antisemitism, racism and prejudice had no place in Victoria.
Police have asked anyone with information about the incident to contact Crime Stoppers.