Berlin police open investigation after prominent rabbi spat on

German police have opened an investigation into a report from a prominent Berlin rabbi that he was insulted and spat at as he was heading home from synagogue with his son.

Police say they are treating the incident as a religiously motivated crime and are looking for suspects.

Berlin Mayor Michael Muller, right, speaking with Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal in Berlin, July 19, 2017. (Matthias Nareyek/Pool/Getty Images/via JTA)

Police say Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal was walking past an apartment building in the Wilmersdorf neighborhood Friday night when he said he was spat at and sworn at by two men inside the building.

Teichtal, who said the two men spoke in Arabic, called in a statement for “tolerance, dialogue and training.”

Despite increasing anti-Semitic incidents, he says he remains “convinced most people in Berlin do not want to accept this aggression against Jews as a sad part of everyday Jewish life”

— AP