Argentina’s chief rabbi badly beaten in home invasion

The assailants reportedly said that they knew they were attacking the chief rabbi. 

By World Israel News staff

Argentina’s Chief Rabbi Gabriel Davidovich was assaulted in his home in the capital of Buenos Aires in the early hours of Monday morning and has been hospitalized with serious injuries, according to the AMIA Jewish community center.

AMIA issued a statement on Monday saying that Davidovich was “beaten and savagely attacked.” Unknown individuals broke into his home at 2 A.M., entering through the roof, and said to him that they knew he was the AMIA rabbi, according to media reports. Davidovich was reported to have suffered nine fractured ribs and a punctured lung and remains hospitalized.

He has served as Argentina’s chief rabbi since 2013.

AMIA described the attack as “alarming” and called on the authorities to quickly investigate the attack on Davidovich and his wife.

According to the media reports, Davidovich’s wife was tied up by the attackers, who then took money and belongings from the home before fleeing.

Police were investigating the crime as a robbery, said the La Nacion daily.

Argentina is home to some 200,000 Jews, most of them in Buenos Aires.

Top Israeli officials reacted to the attack. “We must not allow anti-Semitism to raise its head. I strongly condemn recent anti-Semitic incidents and call on the international community to act against it,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“Today the leaders of the world in Europe, in South America, [and] all over are failing in their responsibility to learn the lessons of the past,” said Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett. “But unlike the past, today we have Israel, and every Jew around the world must know they have a home here; we are waiting,” he added.

Chairman of the Jewish Agency Isaac Herzog condemned the attack and said that “we must fight to the end the human garbage who’s source and motives are the hatred of Jew.” He vowed that the Jewish Agency would help lead the fight against global anti-Semitism.

“The World Jewish Congress (WJC) is shocked and incensed by the brutal attack against the Chief Rabbi of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina, Gabriel Davidovich, who was savagely beaten by robbers inside his own home,” said WJC CEO and Executive Vice President Robert Singer.

The American Jewish Committee issued a statement following the incident, saying: “We are horrified by the assault on Chief Rabbi of Argentina Gabriel Davidovich in his Buenos Aires home. We pray for his recovery and call on Argentine authorities to do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators of this attack swiftly to justice.”

AMIAanti-SemitismArgentinaRabbi Gabriel Davidovich