VIENNA — Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a prominent American Jewish leader, says he was assaulted at a pro-Palestine rally in Vienna on Friday and then treated as a suspect by Austrian police, underscoring concerns over rising antisemitism in Europe, reported by Euro News.
Boteach, known in the U.S. as “America’s Rabbi,” told Euronews he encountered the rally while vacationing with his wife and confronted what he described as “Islamists who want Jews murdered,” distinguishing them from Muslim worshippers, whom he called “brothers.”
Videos posted online show demonstrators surrounding Boteach during a heated exchange. One man kicked him from behind; another grabbed his shirt collar. In the footage, he calls for police intervention, but officers instead surrounded him, warning, “Calm down or you will be arrested.”
Boteach said he was taken to a police station for questioning, missing part of Shabbat preparations. Initially accused of acting “cold and aggressive,” he said officers later acknowledged he was the victim after reviewing video evidence and witness accounts.
Austrian police confirmed “a brief disturbance” occurred and said an investigation into attempted assault and property damage is under way, with no arrests so far.
The incident comes amid a documented surge in antisemitic acts in Europe since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October 2023. A May report by the Anti-Defamation League’s J7 Task Force found violent incidents had more than doubled in several countries last year.
Calling his treatment “humiliating,” Boteach warned that in many European cities, anti-Israel rallies have become “open calls for violence against Jews” while authorities “stand back — or, as in my case, turn their suspicion on the victim.”
“Vienna must choose,” he said. “Will it be the city of Mozart and Mahler — or the city where Jews are attacked in the streets?”
