Vienna, Austria – A Muslim man attacked a Chabad rabbi last night as he was conducting the annual ceremony to light the public Chanukah menorah in Stefenfaltz Square in the city of Vienna, Austria.
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The attacker hurled himself at Rabbi Dov Gruzman, principal of the city’s Jewish school run by the Chabad-Lubavitch Chassidic movement, and began punching him, a local resident told Arutz Sheva.
As the rabbi tried to hold off his attacker, the Muslim suddenly bit his victim, severing part of his finger in the process. The Muslim was caught and arrested by police, and was held for questioning. The rabbi was evacuated to the hospital where doctors rushed to reattach his finger.
Gruzman told Arutz Sheva that the Muslim had raced towards the entrance at the beginning of the ceremony and began to curse the Jews who were there and the Jewish people in general.
“I tried to hold him off, to keep him away from the entrance and he bit me really hard, and that’s how he injured me,” he said.
The event itself did not discourage Rabbi Gruzman, and in fact strengthened his resolve. “We are glad that such an event occurred,” he said. “Today, because of what happened, we are planning [a much larger event]. We increased the number of sufganiot [Chanukah jelly doughnuts] from 50 to 700 – and this is our answer to the attack and to anti-Semitism.”
However, the rabbi himself will be unable to participate in Sunday evening’s ceremony due to the fact that he is still hospitalized, and being monitored for infection from the bite. Nevertheless, he emphasized, through the Chanukah lighting ceremony he sends his blessing to every Jew around the world.
Hashem yeracheim aleinu
Please remove the word “man” after Muslim and replace it with “animal”. Thank you.
thats the spirit.
Then we have the chilul Hashem of “rah- bonim condemning a once in a million attack on a mosque, instead of saying that this is a yiddishe land and they have no place here to begin with. And they want to give out korans rachmono litzlon!!!! And it’s a contest to see which rav gets to the news agency faster to condemn. MOshiach Now!!
May this beast face the full rigor of justice. Hopefully Austria has stringent penalties for hate crimes of Anti-Semitism.
Isn’t this the reason chazal told us to light menoras in our homes, not in our yards?
Wow thats crazy, I think chabad shluchim should carry a weapon or at least learn some sort of self defense
I think that if such things happen in any civil country consequences should be severe to show lessons for all those lunitics.
Why are we silent with our actions? This is war – we must fight back.
The burnt mosque was only the first………
We are in golus the chabad movement didn’t learn from mumbai not to antagonize te goyim the shulchan aruch says t light inside who gave chabad the right to copy the christians and make lighting the menoroha like lighting the christmas tree the chabad houses promote chilul shabos by telling frei people to drive their car on shabos
wow, when the pasuk said “veyad kol bo” who knew it would be so literal?
If you walk by a dog and he barks at you, are you surprised that he barked? No, you realize that it’s a wild animal who has limited intellect and it bark and bites.
The dog is the ishaielites who are running on four legs and frothing at the mouth for violence.
Does this surprise anyone.
ps.
refuah shelmah to the Rav involved
It’s truly sad that people find ways to criticize the shaliach and the Chabad movement at a time like this. I am not a fan of Chabad per se, but they are in the trenches, fighting assimilation, and their public menorah lighting ceremonies attract many Jews to Yiddishkeit.
The gezeirah about lighting outside was made when it was truly dangerous to do so. (Some have kept this, by lighting inside for their families; others light in the window, and some continue to light outside, near their doorway.)
There is no evidence that it is truly dangerous, in most Western locales, to light Chanukah lights outside.
What we are witnessing is a phenomenon wherein the Ishmaelites are acting out a prophecy pertaining to their behavior in the End of Days.
#13 , you are so wrong. Firstly, how dare you say the Holtzbergs “antagonized” the goyim? How exactly? By being friendly to all the Indian neighbors? Oh, by being Jewish! Maybe we should hide our Jewishness…chas v’shalom.
Lighting the menorah outside is to fulfill the mitzvah of pirsumei nisah—it has NOTHING to do with Christmas at all! Should we allow yidden to lose out on the mitzvah of chanukah b/c Christmas happens to fall out at the same time of year?! Do you have any idea how many lives this mitzvah has changed? How many people have suddenly had their Pintele Yid awakened?
One thing I can assure you: it’s not for the shluchim’s own fun. A little respect.
About driving on shabbos, you couldn’t be more wrong. Only after one has invited the guest to sleep over for the entire shabbos, does one invite him/her to join them for a meal. If the guest has the option of joining without driving on Shabbos, then you are allowed to invite him. Consult a competent Rav for your own personal decisions.
May the light of Chanukah imbue you with some positivity and love towards all your fellow Jews.
It’s STefansplatz and not stefenfalz
where is the mitzva in lighting an electric menora, which, according to the vast majority of poskim is not valid halachically???
remember, we are in galus for the time being!!
chadash assur min hatorah!!
unfortunately lubavitch do their own thing and never collaborate or work with anyone else – i know, because i also work in Kiruv, with them it’s ‘my way, or the highway’!
The derech of tzadikim for 2000 yrs of golus has been to keep our heads down and not attract undue attention of the goyim.
Because we live in a malchus shel chesed we shouldn’t abuse our good fortune and fight for rights to put up menorahs in public places and shove it down the goyims throat
Eisov soine leyaakov is not going to go away by winning a court battle it will just fester and explode at a later time
There’s a reason many jewish shuls and mosdos don’t have jewish letters and signs outside their buildings so not to attract attention
You can do kiruv and spread the light without lighting a menorah in the middle of anti semitic vienna
Oy va voy ! First, may HKBH send the shaliach a rufuah . Second, if there is going to be a public event, there must be security. Third, in general we must keep our heads down according to the hanhagah of bli ayin harah. We live in dangerous times my brothers. Let’s keep davening for a yashua. Amen.
so why do we need to apologize for yesterday’s musque burning in Shcem
These new things that those hashmonoyim people invented were not the custom of the previous generations. The yavonim are not that bad and I like greek food – souvlaki is way better than kishke. The togas look hip too. I kinda like the phylosophy also: enjoy life and drop sick children off the cliff – gevaldik! Why do these makkabi mishugoyim have to make the gantze shturem and jeopardize our nice relationship with Antiochus. The goyim wouldn’t touch us if we just keep low profile and follow the rules. We’re in GOLUS, yidden – let’s enjoy it!!
Wow it shouldn’t surprise me that when ever chabad is involved there those that find it necessary to pipe in just like Anti-Semites don’t miss their opportunities.
Why do you post? Just to spread hatred of other Jews? Aside from the fact that you’re so misguided and Illfit to judge a fellow Jew,common decency alone should stop you from making such horrible comments.
Where is the line of Muslims falling all over themselves in
their rush to apologize for this????
having returned from austria just last week, i am not surprised that this type of open attack on jews continues…
one can feel the antisemitism in the streets
even the known austrian newspaper “der standard” brings Vos Is Neias as a source for this news story: http://derstandard.at/1259281801954/Palaestinenser-biss-Rabbiner-in-Hand
While we are lighting for ourselves Chabad is out lighting for the lost sheep. You cannot begin to imagine their Mesiras Nefesh for
strangers! Is everyone perfect?
Is everyone in “OUR” group -which ever group that is – perfect?
There are enough anti semites in the world. We dont have to
criticize every imperfect act by a Yid. There are enough people out there to do that
How do they know the rabbi won’t need rabies shots? Aren’t they supposed to decapitate the attacking animal and check its brain?
Mitzvoh of ner Chanukko and parsumei mitzvo has nothing to do with public display. The mitzvo is in each person’s private home,to show themselves and then to the outside that threr was a nes. Electic lights are only decorative,not mitzvo. .We are in golus,this means we do things b’tzin’a. Goyim will attack Jews and we have to fight back;but we do not have the need or a mitzvo to show off our mitzva observance
Jews! Never keep low profile! It does not mean that you have to scream on every corner. We’ve been slaves. Never again! Chabad is great for welcoming jews in every corner of the world. Where ever you are- you are never alone. It is a great feeling. Thanks to Chabad. It does not mean that it does not make mistakes. Healthy criticism actually helps. When I travel around the world I always know that Chabad is there so as a jew (in this case jewess) I am never alone.
Do you don a yarmuka in public, or you don’t want to antagonize the goyim? Are you simply embarrassed to be Jewish- hence, the belief in keeping a low profile? Rashi says that the Yidden in Mitzraim were worthy because they kept their Jewish identity and were proud to display it.
I am curious. The article did not state it, but did anyone in the crowd attempt to stop this beast and subdue him (using as much physical force as needed and not particularly caring if he received a little judicious roughing up in the process) before the police were called? (obviously not men there with their wives and children, but perhaps a few strong young bocherim or other adult males). I know Vienna is not Boro Park or Crown Heights, but one can easily imagine the locals of the latter communitiies yelling “chapzem!” in such a circumstance and proceeding to (justifiably) beat the living daylights out of such a rat until the police would come to rescue him — thus sending a message to any other Jew-hating rats lurking about that they open their filthy mouths at the risk of their own worthless lives.,
The event itself did not discourage Rabbi Gruzman, and in fact strengthened his resolve. “We are glad that such an event occurred,” he said. “Today, because of what happened, we are planning [a much larger event]. We increased the number of sufganiot [Chanukah jelly doughnuts] from 50 to 700 – and this is our answer to the attack and to anti-Semitism.”
Beautiful. Well done, Rabbi.
the biggest concern we should have is that so many of our people are disappering
from yiddishkeit.and if this touches their neshomes ,do it.Esau will continue hating
Yaakov no matter where you light.Take alook around the World we are losing our people and we can’t afford it.