Ukraine arrests 4 over brutal beating of Israeli rabbi
Mendel Deitsch in serious but stable condition at Tel Hashomer Hospital following violent robbery earlier this month
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on Google
Ukrainian police arrested four suspects, two of them minors, in connection to the brutal assault of Rabbi Mendel Deitsch in the Ukrainian town of Zhytomyr earlier this month.
Deitsch, who serves as Chabad Lubavitch emissary to the former Soviet Union, remains in serious but stable condition at an Israeli hospital after a group of assailants robbed and beat him in the early hours of October 7.
According to reports in Ukrainian media, two males and two females from the Carpathian mountain region attacked Deitsch outside Zhytomyr’s main train station, Chabad.org said in a press release.
The assailants stole Deitsch’s cash and cellphone, leaving him bleeding and unconscious under a bridge, where he was only discovered by passersby the following morning.
Ukrainian police identified the suspects last week, and made the arrests on Monday, Chabad said.
According to the MIG News website, the unnamed suspects are aged 40, 21, 16 and 13.
Deitsch underwent emergency surgery at a Zhytomyr hospital for multiple head injuries and brain trauma. His family arranged for Deitsch to be airlifted to Israel several days later for continued medical treatment at Tel Hashomer Hospital in Ramat Gan.
Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm, director of Chabad-Lubavitch in Zhytomyr, said Deitsch most likely was a victim of a criminal assault and not an anti-Semitic one.
“It should be noted that this is an unusual case that does not in any way reflect on the community in Ukraine,” Wilhelm told Chabad.
Last month in Ukraine, approximately 25,000 Jewish pilgrims from Israel, the United States and Europe converged on the town of Uman for the yearly pilgrimage ahead of the Jewish New Year festival Rosh Hashanah.
They congregate there for the holiday because it is the final resting place of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav, the 18th century founder of the group.
The pilgrimage has generated friction between the predominantly Israeli arrivals and locals, many of whom resent the police cordoning off neighborhoods for the pilgrims.
The Times of Israel Community.