A Jewish student suffered a concussion after he was attacked by three men in a Dublin nightclub in a suspected anti-Semitic assault.
The victim (23), who is from the United States and studying in Ireland, said he was asked: “Are you Jewish?”. He said he confirmed that he was and was then attacked and beaten by the men in the early hours of Saturday, November 9th.
Gardaí have confirmed they are investigating the attack and treating it as a potential “hate-related” crime.
The attack is part of what Jewish leaders say is a growing trend of abuse and violence directed towards Ireland’s small Jewish population.
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Israeli ambassador to Ireland Dana Erlich condemned the incident and said there has been an “alarming increase” in anti-Israel discourse in Ireland that frequently “mutates” into anti-Semitism.
The alleged assault occurred as the victim was out with friends in Flannery’s Nightclub on Camden Street in Dublin city centre after watching the Ireland-New Zealand rugby match on Friday, November 8th.
The young man, who asked not to be named due to safety concerns, was wearing a necklace depicting the Star of David. He said at around 2am three men followed him into the bathroom and asked him if he was Jewish, and that when he said that he was they started to attack him.
“I took multiple punches to the back of the head and back of the torso,” he told The Irish Times.
He said during the attack his knee gave out, causing him to collapse on the ground.
“I stumbled out of the door and hit the ground,
Security intervened and stopped the attack, he said, before bringing him to another area of the bar. Gardaí turned up a few minutes later and began taking witness statements.
The young man said one witness told gardaí it was an unprovoked assault. He said that as gardaí were speaking to people, another person, who had not witnessed the incident, interrupted and said: “The Jews in Amsterdam – they got what they deserved.”
“It definitely showed to me there was an awareness that there was a religious aspect to this,” the victim said.
The previous day, Dutch police arrested more than 60 people during clashes between supporters of Israeli football club Maccabi Tel Aviv and pro-Palestinian protesters in Amsterdam.
Following the Dublin nightclub assault, one of the alleged attackers was detained at the scene and the victim went home to bed.
He woke up the next day with a headache and went to St Vincent’s hospital on the southside of Dublin. A week later, he complained to his GP of ongoing headaches, difficulties with balance and sensitivity to light.
“[The victim] reported feeling very dazed and shaken by this attack,” a medical report stated.
The Irish Times has reviewed medical and Garda records from the incident as well as photographs of the injuries.
A spokesman for An Garda Síochána said it was “investigating a reported assault incident that is alleged to have occurred at a commercial premises on Camden Street, Dublin 2 on Saturday, 9th November 2024.
“Investigations into all the circumstances of this incident, including any hate-related motivation, are ongoing and a diversity liaison officer has been appointed to support the injured party.”
If it reaches court, the incident may become one of the first offences to be prosecuted under the Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024, which became law the week before the attack.
The Act provides for increased prison terms for crimes such as assault that are motivated by racism, anti-Semitism or other forms of hate.
Gardaí reported a 12 per cent rise in “hate crimes and hate-related incidents” last year. The statistics do not specify how many of these related to anti-Semitism.
Maurice Cohen, chair of the Jewish Representative Council Of Ireland, said it had noted “an increase in Jewish people being subjected to increased threats and abuse in Ireland over the last year”.
Mr Cohen noted the nightclub attack occurred on the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi pogrom against German Jews in 1938.
“We implore the Government and Gardaí to act swiftly and decisively to bring the perpetrators to justice and to address the disturbing trend of anti-Semitism that endangers our community and violates Ireland’s core values,” he said.
Ms Erlich, the Israeli ambassador, said she was “concerned for the future of the Jewish and Israeli communities in Ireland”.
She criticised Government and Opposition support for Palestine and the Occupied Territories Bill and pointed to the flying of Hamas flags during pro-Palestine protests in Dublin.
The Israeli and Irish Governments have clashed multiple times since Israel’s invasion of Gaza in 2023, which has killed 45,000 people, most of them civilians.
Ms Erlich was recalled by her Government last May in protest over Ireland’s recognition Palestine as a state. She has yet to return to Ireland.
In May, President Michael D Higgins rejected the ambassador’s claim that anti-Semitism is on the increase in Ireland.
“It is simply something that is a PR exercise by an administration that is guilty of continuing – not historic – continuing breaches of international law as is happening in relation to the events in Gaza,” Mr Higgins said in a newspaper interview.
The victim of the nightclub assault says he has no plans to leave Ireland.
“This is my home,” he said.
He may look over his shoulder more when out in public but he “won’t bow down to this”, he said.
“Anti-Semitism is not something just from the history books – it still persists.”
