The attack occurred at around 8:15pm in the city’s 3rd district, the Zurich municipal police said on Tuesday. Many Orthodox Jews live there.
The 40-year-old assailant, a Kosovar national, attacked the 26-year-old man directly on the pavement, without prior interaction. He punched him before several people came to the victim’s aid and overpowered the attacker.
They held the man until the police arrived. The assailant made insulting and anti-Semitic remarks, also in the presence of police officers.
The man has no fixed address in Switzerland. He is known to the police for unrelated offences, the police told the Swiss News Agency Keystone-ATS. He was handed over to the Zurich public prosecutor’s office after an initial police interrogation.
The victim suffered scratches to his neck and other parts of his body, according to the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities. He is in a state of shock. “This incident is part of a series of anti-Semitic attacks that have increased sharply in Switzerland since October 2023. Jewish people have become targets of insults and physical violence simply because of their appearance and their Jewish identity,” the federation wrote.
“Anti-Semitic narratives are becoming increasingly commonplace in some sections of society,” said the Foundation against Racism and Anti-Semitism in a press release. “They are relativised and trivialised in political debates, social media and everyday life,” which lowers the psychological threshold for hostile acts against Jews, it said.
Protection of Jewish facilities doubled
In 2024, 221 anti-Semitic incidents were reported in Switzerland, including an attempted arson attack on a Zurich synagogue. Figures for 2025 are not yet available.
In March 2024, a 15-year-old Swiss teenager with Tunisian roots seriously injured an Orthodox Jew with a knife in the street in Zurich. He claimed responsibility in the name of the Islamic State terrorist organisation.
Last month, Zurich city parliament decided to double the amount spent on protecting synagogues and other Jewish institutions, from CHF1 million ($1.3 million) to CHF2 million. The cantonal parliament followed suit with the same amount. The government is also contributing to these costs.
