Rabbi savagely assaulted at Milan bus stop

Three Arab men investigated after Chabad rabbi kicked into the street, beaten, and spat upon in antisemitic assault.

By World Israel News Staff

A Chabad rabbi was assaulted at a bus stop in western Milan on Wednesday after three young men allegedly taunted him, seized his traditional black hat and attacked him as he tried to recover it, according to the rabbi, Jewish community officials and Italian media.

The victim has been identified as Rabbi Tzemach Mizrahi, 51, a longtime Israeli-born Chabad emissary in Milan.

Mizrahi said he was on his way to pick up his children from school when he encountered the assailants in the Bande Nere area, close to Milan’s Jewish neighborhood.

“The three began provoking me and grabbed my hat,” Mizrahi recalled, according to a report by Anash. He said that when he demanded it back, one of the men kicked him with enough force to send him into the street. Mizrahi said he did not require medical treatment.

Italian accounts said the confrontation took place in Piazzale Bande Nere, where Mizrahi was waiting for the No. 67 bus. The assailants reportedly insulted him in Arabic and Italian, removed his hat and later trampled on it.

When Mizrahi pulled out his phone to record the men, he was kicked and shoved to the ground, according to* Il Giorno*.

Walker Meghnagi, president of Milan’s Jewish community, gave an even more graphic account of the assault.

“An act of such violence has never happened before,” Meghnagi told ANSA, saying the rabbi was kicked, punched and spat upon and that his hat was knocked off and trampled.

Meghnagi said he had been told the attackers were of Arab origin.

Mizrahi nevertheless managed to follow the men as they fled and obtain photographs and video of them, which were then supplied to police.

Officers located three young men nearby and brought them to Milan police headquarters for questioning, according to Corriere della Sera.

Later reporting by La Repubblica identified the three suspects as aged between 19 and 21 and said they came from families of Tunisian and Moroccan origin and had grown up in Milan.

There was some discrepancy Wednesday night over whether the suspects had been taken into custody, with some reports claiming all three were arrested, while others indicated that one 20-year-old Tunisian suspect — identified as the man accused of delivering the kick — had been arrested, while the other two were being investigated without detention.

Mizrahi spent several hours at the police station giving investigators his account of the incident. “The police took it very seriously,” he said, praising what he described as a rapid response.

The rabbi has served Milan’s Jewish population for decades. Chabad-Lubavitch’s international directory lists Mizrahi among the emissaries operating Beit Chabad Milan, while Jewish community directories describe him as a rabbi serving Israelis in the city and hosting regular Shabbat meals.

The assault quickly drew condemnation from Italian officials. Senate President Ignazio La Russa called it an “alarming incident that cannot be underestimated,” adding that antisemitic violence and hatred must be confronted through investigation and accountability.

Meghnagi said the attack had intensified fears among Milan’s Jewish population.

Speaking to Il Giorno, he warned: “What still has to happen? Soon someone will be killed if there is no serious intervention.”

He later told Il Foglio that he regarded the assault as part of a broader problem of antisemitic intimidation in Italy, saying Mizrahi had been targeted “simply for being Jewish.”

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