12.06.2011                      10.Siwan, 5771                      

Finnland:

Finnish parliament speaker recalls anti-Semitic attack

Ben Zysowicz, Finland's first Jewish lawmaker, tells of assault and anti-Semitic insults.

In a country like Finland, where the Jewish community of 1,500 people makes up a tiny percentage of a population of 5.4 million, anti-Semitic incidents are rare, which is why the recent attack on the Jewish speaker of the parliament was so unusual.
Ben Zyscowicz, the country’s first Jewish lawmaker, was walking home the Wednesday before last after a round of late-night political negotiations when he was suddenly assaulted by a stranger.
“I was walking with a friend in the city very late in the evening when a man who was clearly under the influence of alcohol came toward me,” he told The Jerusalem Post by phone on Friday. “He tried to hit me and he only managed to touch me on one shoulder. He also shouted insults to me based on the fact that I’m a Jew….