Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage shows the attack in the Prenzlauer Berg area of Berlin

German police are investigating an assault on two young men in Berlin, in which the attacker was filmed shouting anti-Semitic abuse.

The men say they were harassed in the Prenzlauer Berg area on Monday while wearing Jewish skullcaps (kippahs).

A video of the incident, which was later shared on Facebook, shows the attacker hitting the men with his belt.

He is heard shouting "Yahudi", an Arabic word for Jew, before being dragged away by another man.

One of the victims, a 21-year-old Israeli called Adam, then reportedly followed the attacker but gave up after a glass bottle was thrown at him.

"I'm surprised something like this happened to me. I'm still in shock," he told Israel's Kan television channel.

"It happened right here, next to my home, when I was on my way to the train station with my friend."

He said a group of three men started insulting them and became angry when they were asked to stop.

"One of them ran at me," he said. "I immediately felt it was important to film because I didn't think we could catch him before police arrived."

The video of the attack was shared on Facebook by the Jewish Forum for Democracy and against Anti-Semitism (JFDA), which said the attack was unbearable to see.

"I used to always advise my Jewish friends and acquaintances not to wear a kippah so as not to show their Jewish identity. I changed my opinion," a spokesman said.

"We must take up this fight and be visible again in public."

In a twist to the story, the Israeli victim later told German media that he had grown up in an Arab family in Israel and was not himself Jewish. He had been given the kippah a few days before by a friend from Israel who had told him it was dangerous to wear one in Berlin and he wanted to see if that was true.

Germany's Jewish population has grown rapidly since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Before 1989, the population was below 30,000 but an influx of Jews, mainly from the former Soviet Union, has raised the number to more than 200,000.</s>BERLIN — Two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps were attacked and insulted in an apparent anti-Semitic assault in Berlin by three other men, who whipped one with a belt, Berlin police said Wednesday.

The German government expressed shock over Tuesday’s attack in the city’s trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood, which was caught on video by one of the victims and quickly went viral.

German Foreign Heiko Maas tweeted that “it is intolerable if young men are being attacked here just because they wear a kippa.”

“Jews shall never again feel threatened here. It’s our responsibility to protect Jewish life here,” Maas added, in reference to the killing of six million European Jews by Germany under the Nazis in the Holocaust more than 70 years ago.

Berlin police said the two victims were 21 and 24 years old but didn’t identify them by name.

Israeli broadcaster Kan published an interview with the 21-year-old victim who was slightly injured by the belt, and identified him as Israeli citizen Adam Armoush. He said he was leaving his Berlin home when the three people came and started cursing at them.

“They kept cursing us and my friend asked them to stop cursing,” Armoush told Kan TV. “They started to get angry and one of them ran to me and I knew it was important to film it because there would be no way to catch him by the time police arrived.”

Police said they are still looking for the attackers.

Two Jewish organizations posted the video, which showed a young man attacking the victim while yelling “Yahudi!” or “Jew” in Arabic.

The head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, demanded punishment for the perpetrators, tweeting that “it makes me angry to see such violence full of hatred.”

Police said after the belt attack, the suspect’s two companions took him away. When the group left, Armoush followed them. The attacker then took a glass bottle, as if he intended to hit him again, but a witness interceded and prevented the attack.

Following the attack, Armoush lifts up his shirt on the video and shows bruises left by the belt. Armoush did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

“I denounce this renewed anti-Semitic attack in the sharpest terms,” Mueller said. “Anti-Semitism doesn’t belong to the Berlin we want to live in.”

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Germany. Several Jewish students have reported anti-Semitic bullying in schools in recent months, Israeli flags were burnt during a recent protest in Berlin and a rap band that included cynical references about the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp in its lyrics won the country’s most important music prize last week — drawing massive criticism from other artists and government officials.

The German government appointed a career diplomat earlier this month to co-ordinate the fight against anti-Semitism.

According to the RIAS group, some 947 anti-Semitic incidents including 18 attacks and 23 threats were documented in Berlin last year.

Frank Jordans in Berlin, Joseph Federman and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed reporting.</s>BERLIN (JTA) – A young Jewish man wearing a kippah was physically attacked on a Berlin street by an Arabic-speaking man in an apparent anti-Semitic attack.

Police are investigating the Tuesday evening incident, which the victim, 21, filmed on his cell phone. The victim has been identified in German media as being an Israeli.

During the attack, the assailant lashed the kippah-clad Jewish man with his belt and repeated the Arabic word for Jew, “Yahudi.”

According to news reports, the victim was accompanied by a friend, 24, who also was wearing a kippah. He reported being verbally attacked by three men; after the belt came out, one of the attacker’s companions intervened and the three began to move away.

Police told the BZ online newspaper that the Jewish men then followed their attackers, one of whom by then had picked up a bottle. A 24-year-old woman intervened to keep the groups apart and the three attackers fled on foot.

The incident took place on a warm evening in the trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, which is popular among many Israelis living in Berlin. It is also home to an Orthodox Jewish community centered around the Lauder Yeshivas Beis Zion and the synagogue Kahal Adass Jisroel Berlin.

The video of the attack taken on the victim’s cellphone has coursed through social media after it was shared by the Berlin-based Jewish Forum for Democracy and Against Antisemitism.

Forum spokesperson Levi Salomon told the BZ that the incident shows that even in a “posh Berlin district… Jews are not safe.” He said it is

 time for politicians to stop talking and do something.

Berlin Jewish community council member Mike Samuel Delberg also shared the video on his Facebook profile, and in his posting urged the police

 and investigators to find the perpetrator and “go after him with the full force of law.”</s>BERLIN (AP) — Berlin police say two men wearing Jewish skullcaps were attacked and insulted by a group of three other men, who whipped one with a belt in an apparent anti-Semitic assault.

Two Jewish organizations posted a video of the attack taken by one of the victims, which showed a young man attacking him while yelling “Yahudi,” or “Jew” in Arabic.

City officials on Wednesday condemned the attack in the city’s trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood the previous day. Police say the video is part of their investigation and they are trying to determine the identity of the suspects.

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in Germany.

According to the RIAS group that such incidents in Berlin, there were 947 anti-Semitic incidents including 18 attacks and 23 threats in Berlin last year.</s>German police are investigating an assault on two young men in Berlin, in which the attacker was filmed shouting anti-Semitic abuse.

The men say they were harassed in the Prenzlauer Berg area on Monday while wearing Jewish skullcaps (kippahs).</s>The attack happened at around 8pm on Tuesday evening in the Prenzlauer Berg district, police report.

The two Jewish men who were reportedly wearing kippahs, were verbally attacked by a group of three youths, who used anti-Semitic epithets against them.

One youth then emerged from the group of three young men and attacked a 21-year-old Israeli with his belt, while shouting “Jew” at him.

The victims of the attack were able to record footage of it on a mobile phone, which was later published on Facebook by the Jewish Forum for Democracy (JFDA).

The attacker’s companions stopped him from continuing the attack and fled the scene with him. When the young Israeli followed them, the man picked up a glass bottle and tried to attack him with it. A female bystander was able to step between the men and prevent further injury.

“It is unbearable that a young Jewish man was attacked on the streets of a well-to-do neighbourhood like Prenzlauer Berg because he showed his Jewish faith," said Levi Salomon from the JFDA. “This shows that Jews are not even safe here. Politicians need to do something - the time for talking is over."

Several recent incidents have raised alarm about anti-Semitism among Berlin’s Muslim Middle Eastern population. Last month a man reported that his daughter was bullied at her primary school by Muslim classmates due to her Jewish faith. One classmate reportedly told her that she deserved to be beaten and killed.

SEE ALSO: Who are Germany's foreign population and where do they live?</s>BERLIN -- German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday sharply condemned a street assault in Berlin on two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps that has stoked the debate about anti-Semitism in the country.

In a surprising twist, however, the victim of the attack, who identified himself on Israeli television as Adam Armoush, later told German TV that he wasn't Jewish, but an Israeli from an Arab family.

Armoush told Deutsche Welle Television that he wore the skullcap to make a point to a friend who said it was risky to do so in Germany.

"I was saying it's really safe and I wanted to prove it, but it ended like that," he said.

Regardless of Armoush's intention, it comes at a time of increased fears of anti-Semitism and indications that attacks against Jews are on the rise.

A video of the attack Tuesday showing Armoush being whipped with a belt quickly went viral with people assuming that Armoush was Jewish.

Merkel called the attack in the city's trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighbourhood "a very horrible incident" and vowed the government would respond "with full force and resolve" against growing anti-Semitism in Germany.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that "Jews shall never again feel threatened here."

"It's our responsibility to protect Jewish life here," he wrote in reference to the killing of 6 million European Jews by Germany under the Nazis in the Holocaust more than 70 years ago.

Berlin police said the two men with the skullcaps were 21 and 24 years old but didn't identify them.

The video doesn't show the outbreak of the fight or how it started, but Armoush told Israeli Kan TV said he was leaving his Berlin home when the three people started cursing at them.

"They kept cursing us and my friend asked them to stop cursing," Armoush told Israeli Kan TV in Hebrew. "They started to get angry and one of them ran to me and I knew it was important to film it because there would be no way to catch him by the time police arrived."

Police said they are still looking for the attackers.

Two Jewish organizations posted the video, which showed a young man attacking Armoush while yelling "Yahudi!" or "Jew" in Arabic.

The head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, demanded punishment for the perpetrators, tweeting that "it makes me angry to see such violence full of hatred."

"There's anti-Semitism among German citizens, unfortunately, and also anti-Semitism from the Arabic-speaking region and the government will do everything (against it)," Merkel told reporters.

Armoush didn't respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

The RIAS group said Berlin saw 947 anti-Semitic incidents including 18 attacks and 23 threats last year.

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise across Germany. Several Jewish students have reported anti-Semitic bullying in schools in recent months and Israeli flags were burnt during a recent protest in Berlin.

Last week, a rap band that included cynical references about the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in its lyrics won the country's most important music prize -- drawing strong criticism from other artists and government officials. Several past winners said they would return their awards.

German rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang won an Echo award for their new album, including a track that contains the line "my body more defined than Auschwitz inmates."

Their record company, BMG, defended the rappers Wednesday, citing "artistic freedom." The musicians themselves denied anti-Semitism but apologized for any offence caused.

In a separate incident, German aid group GIZ said Wednesday it has taken action against several employees accused of posting anti-Semitic material on social media. The group, whose biggest client is the German government, said it fired one employee, issued a written warning to another and reprimanded a third.

GIZ said last month it was alerted by reports in Israeli media to the posts by staff working in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. One featured Israel's flag with a Nazi swastika beneath the words: "I hate Israel."

Tanja Goenner, chair of GIZ's management board, said the group had "no reason to assume that anti-Semitism is a general problem."

Earlier this month, Germany appointed a diplomat to co-ordinate government activities against anti-Semitism.

Frank Jordans in Berlin, Joseph Federman and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed to this report.</s>According to news reports, two Jewish men wearing kippahs were walking on the street when they were attacked by an Arabic-speaking man, who started to whip one of them with his belt, crying out the Arabic word for Jew, "Yahudi." The incident took place in the fashionable Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood, which is very famous among many Israelis living in Berlin.

"It is intolerable if young men are being attacked here just because they wear a kippah. Jews shall never again feel threatened here. It's our responsibility to protect Jewish life here," German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas posted on his Twitter page.</s>BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday sharply condemned a street assault in Berlin on two young men wearing Jewish skullcaps that has stoked the debate about anti-Semitism in the country.

A video of the attack Tuesday showing one of the victims being whipped with a belt quickly went viral.

Merkel called attack in the city's trendy Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood "a very horrible incident" and vowed the government would respond "with full force and resolve" against growing anti-Semitism in Germany.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas tweeted that "Jews shall never again feel threatened here."

"It's our responsibility to protect Jewish life here," he wrote in reference to the killing of six million European Jews by Germany under the Nazis in the Holocaust more than 70 years ago.

Berlin police said the two victims were 21 and 24 years old but didn't identify them.

Israeli broadcaster Kan published an interview with the 21-year-old who was slightly injured by the belt, and identified him as Israeli Adam Armoush.

The video does not show the outbreak of the fight or how it started, but Armoush said he was leaving his Berlin home when the three people started cursing at them.

"They kept cursing us and my friend asked them to stop cursing," Armoush told Kan TV. "They started to get angry and one of them ran to me and I knew it was important to film it because there would be no way to catch him by the time police arrived."

Police said they are still looking for the attackers.

Two Jewish organizations posted the video , which showed a young man attacking the victim while yelling "Yahudi!" or "Jew" in Arabic.

Armoush told German broadcaster Deutsche Welle that he himself is an Israeli Arab, not Jewish, and that he wore the skullcap to make a point to a friend who said it was risky to do so in Germany.

"I was saying it's really safe and I wanted to prove it, but it ended like that," he said.

The head of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany, Aiman Mazyek, demanded punishment for the perpetrators, tweeting that "it makes me angry to see such violence full of hatred."

"There's anti-Semitism among German citizens, unfortunately, and also anti-Semitism from the Arabic-speaking region and the government will do everything (against it)," Merkel told reporters.

Police said after the belt attack, the suspect's two companions took him away. Armoush followed them. The attacker then took a glass bottle, as if he intended to hit him again, but a witness interceded.

Armoush then lifts up his shirt on the video and shows bruises left by the belt. He did not respond to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

"I denounce this renewed anti-Semitic attack in the sharpest terms," Mueller said. "Anti-Semitism doesn't belong to the Berlin we want to live in."

Yet the RIAS group said Berlin saw 947 anti-Semitic incidents including 18 attacks and 23 threats last year.

Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise across Germany. Several Jewish students have reported anti-Semitic bullying in schools in recent months and Israeli flags were burnt during a recent protest in Berlin.

Last week, a rap band that included cynical references about the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp in its lyrics won the country's most important music prize — drawing strong criticism from other artists and government officials. Several past winners said they would return their awards.

German rappers Kollegah and Farid Bang won an Echo award for their new album, including a track that contains the line "my body more defined than Auschwitz inmates.'"

Their record company, BMG, defended the rappers Wednesday, citing "artistic freedom." The musicians themselves denied anti-Semitism but apologized for any offense caused.

In a separate incident, German aid group GIZ said Wednesday it has taken action against several employees accused of posting anti-Semitic material on social media. The group, whose biggest client is the German government, said it fired one employee, issued a written warning to another and reprimanded a third.

GIZ said last month it was alerted by reports in Israeli media to the posts by staff working in Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. One featured the Israel flag with a Nazi swastika beneath the words: "I hate Israel."

Tanja Goenner, chair of GIZ's management board, said the group had "no reason to assume that anti-Semitism is a general problem."

Earlier this month, Germany appointed a diplomat to coordinate government activities against anti-Semitism.

Frank Jordans in Berlin, Joseph Federman and Aron Heller in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Berlin — German political and religious leaders expressed shock on Wednesday over an antiSemitic attack on two men in an upscale neighbourhood of central Berlin, filmed by one of the victims.

A spokesperson for Chancellor Angela Merkel and justice minister Katarina Barley condemned the incident as a "disgrace" for German democracy, after the brief video surfaced on news websites and went viral.

"It is unbearable that Jews in Germany are attacked on the open street in the middle of Berlin," Barley tweeted.

Foreign minister Heiko Maas said Germany "bears a responsibility to protect Jewish life", more than 70 years after the end of the Holocaust, in which the Nazis murdered six-million European Jews.

The two men in their early 20s wearing kippas — traditional Jewish skullcaps — were accosted in the Prenzlauer Berg district of the capital by three young men, at least one of whom spoke Arabic.

One of the victims, Adam, filmed a man whipping him with a belt and shouting "yahudi" — Jew in Arabic. The video subsequently shows Adam with a bruise on his torso.

In a video interview with Bild newspaper, Adam, identified as an Israeli citizen, said the main attacker seemed to have a "Syrian dialect".

"I am very sad but at the same time I’m happy that we were able to achieve something with the video," he said, speaking fluent German.

"I am a little afraid now, and disappointed," he said, adding that he nevertheless planned to continue wearing his kippa in Berlin.

"I hope the police will be able to find the attackers soon — the police were very responsive."

The head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Joseph Schuster, said he was "shocked" by the incident. "This case must be met with the full force of the law," he said.

A number of high-profile incidents in recent months have raised alarm bells about a possible resurgence of antiSemitism in Germany from both the far-right and a large influx of predominantly Muslim asylum seekers, since 2015.

Merkel created a new position of commissioner to fight antiSemitism under her new coalition government sworn in in March.
Two Israeli men wearing kippahs are attacked in Berlin, Germany.