Rabbi Boteach hit, threatened with arrest at Vienna anti-Israel rally

Shmuley Boteach, a prominent Orthodox rabbi from the United States, said that police in Vienna, Austria, briefly detained him and treated him as a suspect on Friday after anti-Israel protesters assaulted him on the street.

Officers led Boteach to a police station under threat of being arrested and taken there by force, even after two American tourists, one of them a retired police officer from California, told the Austrian officers that Boteach was the victim in the situation and that they had video to prove it, Boteach told JNS.

He added that anti-Israel protesters targeted him, likely because he wears a kippah, even though he did not provoke them as they were protesting in central Vienna, where he was with his wife, Debbie, for research on a book about the Holocaust.

Boteach said the incident was indicative of a reality in Europe that forces Jews to “avoid public spaces, disguise themselves in public spaces, or do neither and fight back against this oppression.”

A spokesperson for the Austrian police told JNS on Sunday: “During the aforementioned gathering, a brief disturbance occurred involving one person. Police officers on site prevented any further confrontation. Investigations are currently underway on suspicion of attempted assault and property damage by unknown perpetrators. No arrests were made at the gathering.”