Another anti-Semitic incident has rocked the Jewish community in Australia. According to the Australian Jewish News, a Frum man has been physically attacked on Dandenong Road in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

According to AJN, the man was attacked and beaten by a drunken gang as he walked to work this past Monday morning. The man was reportedly dragged into the middle of a street where he was beaten – nearly getting struck by passing vehicles. No one stopped to help the man as the attack took place.

Even more troubling is the fact that police say they will prosecute the case as a standard assault-and-battery incident, but will not charge the attackers under the state’s Racial and Religious Tolerance Act.

Caulfield MLA Helen Shardey last week called on the State Government to follow the lead of New South Wales and to introduce a police race-hate crime unit.

“The most obvious race-hate crime of assault has not been dealt with under the Racial and Religious Tolerance Act,” she told State Parliament.

“I am told that the reason is that Victoria Police, despite all the evidence, does not believe racially-based hate crime is occurring in this state.”

Shardey was backed by Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu, who said: “This appalling attack against an innocent Jewish pedestrian is a clear example of racially motivated violence that must not be tolerated in our society. We need a decisive and sustained response by law enforcement to address this problem.”

Just last week YWN reported about an incident where a Jewish man was verbally assaulted by three individuals with antisemitic slander, and on January 22 we reported about anti-Semitic vandalism against a Shul, kosher bakery and restaurant.