Two boys charged after repeatedly punching rabbi in antisemitic attack

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Two teenagers have been charged after an antisemitic attack on a senior rabbi.

Two attackers shouted “F*** Jews”, “Dirty Jew” and “Kill the Jews” as the rabbi walked through Amhurst Park in Clapton, north London, at around 9.45pm on 29 November.

The Metropolitan Police, who released CCTV images of the two suspects, said the boys, aged 14 and 15, had handed themselves in during the early hours of Tuesday.

The pair presented themselves at an east London police station after being recognised by a relative from the police images, the force said.

They are currently being held in custody.

The rabbi, who has not been named, had travelled to the UK from Israel to attend a wedding and has since returned home.

Jewish neighbourhood patrol group Shomrim said the rabbi had left the Bobov Synagogue in Egerton Road and was walking along Clapton Common when he was assaulted.

The two attackers repeatedly punched him, threw him to the ground and carried on beating him, only stopping when a member of the public intervened.

Shomrim said the rabbi, who sits in a Judaic court as a judge, was left “collapsed on the pavement, bleeding and dazed, where he lay for several minutes”.

Fellow rabbi Herschel Gluck said the victim was left “bruised and traumatised” by his ordeal.

The two boys are due to appear at Stratford Youth Court on 7 January next year.

Press Association