Struck from behind and left bloodied and dazed in the middle of a busy Manchester retail district, a British Jewish man related to The Jerusalem Post how he is still recovering from his wounds and the lingering fear that he could be attacked again.
On February 3, the visibly Jewish man, who requested to remain anonymous, was hurrying along a main thoroughfare in the Exchange Square area to get to a business meeting after prayers at a local Chabad center.
At around 1:30 p.m., as he was checking his phone for emails from the National Football Museum, the victim heard someone running up behind him. For a split second, he thought that a thief might attempt to grab his phone; he gripped it tight. Yet this was no thief.
The Jewish man felt a hard blow along the side of his face – like a glass bottle. The force of the strike knocked him to the ground and his glasses’ frames were smashed. He felt that his eye had been wounded, but even without the injury, his vision was blurred without his spectacles.
At that moment he felt that the attacker was coming back to harm him again.
“I tried to just get away,” he recalled. The world spinning and blurry, the victim ran across the street to get away from his attacker.
At a bus stop, he touched his eye and drew back blood. The man called for help, explaining that he had been attacked. Witnesses at the bus stop pointed in the direction of the attacker, some calling to chase after him.
A large bearded man told the Jewish man to call the police and led the charge after the assailant. As they followed the suspect, the victim, through a haze, explained to the police that he was a visibly Jewish person who had been attacked without warning.
They followed the attacker to a tram platform, where he darted into the tram. The assailant was shouting something, but in his post-attack stupor, the Jewish man couldn’t discern what he was saying. The bearded Good Samaritan proposed they follow the attacker onto the tram, but the police told the victim not to.
The Jewish man advised the authorities that the perpetrator was headed toward Victoria Station, where he said there were usually police officers. The bearded man got onto the tram, while the police said they would come find the victim.
After the tram had left, the Jewish man waited for law enforcement as people walked past. “I felt very alone,” he said.
Police officers arrived at the scene
Once police officers arrived, they said the victim didn’t appear seriously wounded, took the details of the incident, and sent a paramedic to see him. The paramedic used a saline solution to wash out his eye and checked to make sure there were no glass fragments in it, but the victim was sent to an ophthalmologist to do scans.
The bearded man returned and related that he had heard the attacker shouting that the Jewish man was a “murderer” and “responsible for the war in Gaza.”
“The real shame was that the bearded fellow did not want to give a police statement because he had his own criminal record and didn’t want to give an official statement besides giving a description,” the Jewish man explained about some of the challenges in seeking justice.
The victim couldn’t identify the man, and he didn’t think that officers were notified at Victoria Station. Due to the lack of evidence, the police didn’t want to treat the case as a racially aggravated incident, but just another assault.
The police said he should expect to wait a month to hear back from law enforcement. The Jewish man contacted the Community Security Trust (CST) and Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), who reportedly argued that law enforcement should take the case more seriously.
The Greater Manchester Police published a photograph of a suspect last Tuesday along with an appeal for public aid in his identification. CST and the police said in a joint February 11 statement that hate crimes would not be tolerated.
“We will always endeavor to take action against those responsible for this type of offense to keep our communities safe,” read the statement. “Hate crime comes in many different forms and strikes at the heart of communities, having a devastating impact.”
A CAA spokesperson said it was offering a £5,000 reward for information about the suspect that led to a conviction.
“This victim’s testimony is horrific,” said the spokesperson. “At a time of surging antisemitism, incidents like these are becoming far too common, and those responsible must be held to account.”
The bruises and cuts around the victim’s eye “weren’t pretty” and are slowly healing. The injuries could have been much worse. Trauma takes longer to heal.
“It’s difficult to walk around in the city center,” said the Jewish victim, citing feelings of trepidation and fear that someone else would come out of the shadows. Maybe other attackers were out there, or maybe his own assailant could come after others.
“That guy is still out there in public, and he could do it again, and next time he could have a knife.”