Nazi salute and ‘Heil Hitler’ on a Melbourne street
A Jewish man in his 30s was left shocked after a horrific antisemitic incident in which he was affronted by a man yelling ‘Heil Hitler’.”
Dvir Abramovich – ADC
The man, who does not wish to be identified, was walking on Friday at 11:05 am along Murrumbeena road, in the Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena.
Seeing a male and female in their 40s walking towards him on the footpath, he moved aside to the nature strip.
He then noticed that the man stopped and was trying to get his attention. He removed his headphones, at which point the offender began doing the Nazi salutes and shouting ‘Heil Hitler’ over and over.
As he began to walk away, the Jewish victim heard the offender continue yelling ‘Heil Hitler’.
The offending male was over 6 feet, muscly, with numerous tattoos across his arms. He was wearing a baseball cap and of middle eastern/Mediterranean appearance with an Australian accent.
The woman was tall, with dyed deep red medium length curly hair and also likely to be of middle eastern/Mediterranean Australian.
The victim, who does not wear a yarmulke reported the incident to the Anti-Defamation Commission telling them that he was disgusted by this extreme display of antisemitism.
The ADC reported that in another incident that took place on Tuesday at 8:30 pm near the Coles supermarket on Carlisle St, Balaclava, an orthodox Jewish woman was abused by a Caucasian man who yelled at her, “F-ck off Jew”
Dr. Abramovich, Chairman of the ADC, said: “I am sorry to say this, but we are going down a path whereby anyone who may be perceived as being Jewish will not feel safe walking our streets for fear of being targeted and singled out for abuse.
We cannot allow an open season on Jews to become the new normal, and this terrifying and despicable attack, which could have turned violent, occurred amid a dangerous tide of escalating antisemitism in Melbourne and a disturbing rash of similar incidents. Enough is enough. Such ugliness is a grim reminder that anti-Jewish bigotry is becoming a fact of daily life here, and this outburst of pure hatred provides further evidence that racists are less inhibited about openly expressing their neo-Nazi poison in public.
We should remember that this type of intimidation has an impact not only on the victim but leaves the entire community with deep psychological scars and feeling anxious.
Such outrage deserves condemnation by political, civic and religious leaders and priority response from police and government.”
