{"id":10352,"date":"2026-02-24T15:49:31","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T02:49:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=10352"},"modified":"2026-02-24T15:25:57","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T02:25:57","slug":"australian-teen-assaulted-in-suspected-antisemitic-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=10352","title":{"rendered":"Australian teen assaulted in suspected antisemitic attack"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Victorian police are investigating a suspected antisemitic assault on an 18-year-old man who was allegedly punched in the face at a Scouts camp while wearing a yarmulke and carrying an Israeli flag, Australia\u2019s 9News<\/em> reported on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police said Joshua Levy was first verbally abused by an unknown man while walking at Lardner Park in West Gippsland about 2 p.m. on Saturday, then later assaulted by the same person in a crowd of about 300 people at around 9 p.m. Levy suffered bruising around his nose and swelling to his cheek and reported the incident to police the following day with his father, 9News<\/em> said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Levy told the national news service on the Nine Network<\/em> in Australia that he initially thought the tap on his shoulder was from a friend before he \u201cinstantly felt hazy\u201d after being struck three times. \u201cHurting people based on their opinions is not OK,\u201d he said. Police said they believe the assault was a targeted attack and warned that antisemitic, racist or hate-based behavior \u201cwill not be tolerated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anti-Defamation Commission said in a statement the teen was \u201cvisibly Jewish\u201d when attacked and warned that such incidents reflect a worsening climate for Jewish Australians. Commission chair Dvir Abramovich said the assault could have resulted in serious injury and urged police to pursue the case with the full weight of the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing, according to Victoria Police. Authorities appealed for anyone with information or footage to contact Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident comes as tensions remain high in the country in the wake of December\u2019s antisemitic terrorist\u00a0shooting\u00a0at Bondi Beach that killed 15 people and wounded dozens more. It also comes shortly after a\u00a0diplomatic visit\u00a0by Israeli President Isaac Herzog brought waves of anti-Israel protests to major cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 32-year-old man from Sunnybank has been charged after allegedly ramming a Toyota Hilux into the front gates of\u00a0Brisbane Synagogue\u00a0on Friday night, knocking them down and then fleeing before being arrested a short time later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli called the incident \u201cvery distressful\u201d for the state\u2019s Jewish community and said it underscored the need for stronger worship-protection laws now before parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The suspect, who was expected to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday, faces counts including willful damage and serious vilification or hate crime, while Jewish community leader Libby Burke said the vehicle attack on the \u201csacred space\u201d was profoundly devastating and echoed antisemitic incidents seen worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victorian police are investigating a suspected antisemitic assault on an 18-year-old man who was allegedly punched in the face at a Scouts camp while wearing a yarmulke and carrying an Israeli flag, Australia\u2019s 9News reported on Monday. Police said Joshua Levy was first verbally abused by an unknown man while walking at Lardner Park in West Gippsland<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[43],"tags":[349,327,109],"coauthors":[381],"class_list":{"0":"post-10352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-2","8":"tag-antisemitism","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-persecution"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Bondi.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10355,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10352\/revisions\/10355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10352"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}