Zurich steps up security at Jewish sites after possible anti-Semitic attack

ZURICH – The police have stepped up security measures at Jewish sites in Zurich following a serious knife attack on an orthodox Jewish man in the Swiss city overnight, the local police said on March 3.

The police said they had taken action after a 15-year-old Swiss youth was arrested for inflicting “life-threatening” injuries on a 50-year-old Jewish man in central Zurich on the night of March 2.

A Zurich police statement said it was not clear what sparked the attack, but that investigations were “explicitly including the possibility of a crime motivated by anti-Semitism.”

The extra security was put in place for “specific locations with a Jewish connection”, the police said, following discussions with local Jewish organisations. They gave no further details.

Dr Jonathan Kreutner, general secretary of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), told Swiss television that physical attacks on Jewish people in the country were rare.

“A case like this is really a new dimension,” he said.

Concern about the risk of anti-Semitic behaviour in Switzerland has grown since the

attacks by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on Oct 7

and subsequent campaign against the Islamist group by the Israeli government in Gaza.

In February, the SIG raised concern about attitudes towards Jewish people after local media reported the police had opened an investigation into a sign in Hebrew displayed by a business in Davos that declared Jews were barred from renting ski gear. REUTERS