“Five different incidents were reported to us,” said Jonathan Kreutner, Secretary General of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG), on Tuesday. He confirmed reports in the online new website 20Minuten.
The attacks all took place in the suburb of Zurich-Wiedikon at the weekend. As far as is known, most of the attacks were reported to the police.
“Such a spate of physical attacks on Jewish people, where we have to assume, at least in part, that they only took place because the people were Jewish, is worrying and unusual,” said Kreutner in the 20 Minuten report. Word of the incidents had spread in the Jewish community and caused concern.
More
Anti-Semitism in Switzerland
Anti-Semitic prejudices tend to rise to the surface during crises. Switzerland has a history of this kind of discrimination.
The number of antisemitic incidents in German-speaking and Italian-speaking Switzerland rose in 2023. A total of 1,130 antisemitic incidents were reported or observed, compared to 910 in the previous year, as reported by SIG and the Foundation against Racism and Antisemitism (GRA) in the spring. According to the latest anti-Semitism report, incidents in Germany increased particularly after the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7. The figures for 2024 will be published by the SIG in the spring.
Adapted from German by DeepL/ac
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Controversial Russian soprano Anna Netrebko returns to Zurich
This content was published on
Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, who is said to be close to Russian president Vladimir Putin, to perform at the Zurich Opera House.
This content was published on
Multiple births following artificial insemination in Switzerland have fallen sharply over the last 20 years, shrinking from 17.4% in 2002 to 2.8% in 2023.
This content was published on
Three independent UN experts call on Switzerland and other countries to redouble efforts a year after a ECHR ruling in favour of Climate Elders.
“No US tariff negotiations”: Swiss economics minister
This content was published on
Switzerland has yet to enter formal tariff negotiations with the United States despite making contact with the administration.
Soaring cocoa prices hit Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut
This content was published on
Swiss chocolate maker Barry Callebaut suffered from soaring cocoa prices in the first half of the 2024-2025 financial year.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.