Sydney-based Rabbi Yossi and Chana Friedman’s eight-year-old son was harassed while walking home from school in Dover Heights last week, with the incident reported to both CSG and the police.
The young Kesser Torah College student was wearing his uniform and a kippah and was alone near Dudley Page Reserve when a woman wearing a hijab verbally abused him.
“He was on the corner where Archie’s Cafe is, walking towards Dudley Page, and a woman walking her dog wearing a maroon coloured hijab – in her 30s, he thinks – looked at him,” said Chana.
“He didn’t think of anything of her, and she said to him, “f*ck you’. Then she put her middle finger up at our eight-year-old son, who was alone in the middle of the day at 3pm on Friday afternoon in Dover heights, and he waited until she turned the corner and he ran home.
“She was wearing her hijab, she was free to express her religion. Yet seeing an eight-year-old child express his religion, she thought that it was okay to assault and harass a child.”
Rabbi Friedman said CSG and police will be investigating the incident, but has appealed to anyone who may have seen the woman, who has a white, medium-sized dog, to come forward.
“To choose to harass an eight-year-old child, how low do you have to steep?,” he said.
The Friedman’s have received plenty of support on social media after posting a video detailing the incident, including from Senator Dave Sharma and Member for Vaucluse Kelli Sloane. Sloane posted in response, “So terrible – hope you’re all doing ok. Let me know if I can help in any way”, while Sharma said, “So sickening, I’m so sorry to hear this”.
Another person posted, “I can tell you now I am Catholic, I stand right beside the Jewish community. God help anyone that ever would do something like that in my company, I would stand up and protect your son”.
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