WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was attacked in a central Warsaw street on Saturday in what the Interior Ministry said was probably a provocation meant to portray Poland as an anti-Semitic country.
[Rather than, say, evidence that Poland is an anti-Semitic country.]
The attack coincided with a visit to Poland by German-born Pope Benedict, who was due to pray later on Sunday at the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, where 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were killed during World War Two.
Police have yet to apprehend the man responsible. I suggest they search local Internet cafes: his “friends” at DreamHost eagerly await his application for webhosting.
UPDATE : The US Embassy has, according to Radio Polonia, “condemned the attack on Michael Schudrich… In a special statement Victor Ashe, the American ambassador to Poland has wished the Rabbi a quick return to health and thanked Polish authorities for their effort in establishing the perpetrator of the physical assault… He called on all who hold intolerance and anti-Semitism in contempt to unite in countering such practices. Rabbi Schudrich is a U.S. citizen. He was verbally insulted and attacked by a young man in Warsaw city center. Deputy premier and interior minister Ludwik Dorn has ordered a special police investigation to apprehend the attacker and establish his motives.”
A perfect opportunity, one might think, for US authorities to co-operate with the Polish Ministry of Justice and Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) in an investigation into the links between this (and other recent violent assaults), on the one hand, and the neo-Nazi redwatch — and, of course, its (Dream)Host — on the other.