Three boys, aged between 15 and 14 years old, were reportedly confronted by a group of teenagers as they boarded a bus in Melbourne. One boy, named Elimelech, told the outlet The Age that an unknown girl from the group asked: “What would you do if I grabbed [kippah] off your head?” Another boy behind him shouted “gas the Jews”.
According to the boy, who asked that his name remain secret for fear of further bad-mouthing, tried to ease the standoff and explained what his kippah represents, but said it only provoked more anti-Semitic remarks. The boy and his friends revealed that they failed to report the offenders to the driver because they were too shaken and scared.
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Elimelech told the outlet that one of the teenagers on the bus sat next to his other friend and mocked him, saying “how stupid what he was wearing on his head was". According to the bullied teen, it was not the first time that he has faced verbal attacks with people yelling derogatory comments from a car driving past while he was walking on the Sabbath.
“People should be aware of the Holocaust and how damaging these comments are to someone who is a descendant of people who got killed and murdered”, the teen, whose great-grandmother died in a Nazi concentration camp, said.
The Age cites human rights advocates as pointing to a wave of anti-Semitic incidents and a “tsunami” of vilification in Melbourne, namely a vast amount of anti-Jewish graffiti found around the suburbs and a swastika sticker was put up linked to the extremist group Antipodean Resistance, discovered at a care centre, which also houses Holocaust survivors. Additionally, footage has recently emerged showing a rabbi being abused by an unknown man, saying he "should've died in Auschwitz".
“Want me to get out and show you what Hitler did, no worries dickhead”, the motorist is heard yelling in the video, which was filmed by the rabbi himself.