Mitte, Berlin – On Wednesday night, unknown perpetrators threw two Molotov cocktails towards a building on Brunnenstrasse in Berlin-Mitte that houses various Jewish institutions.
These include rooms of a Talmud Torah school and the synagogue of the Kahal Adass Yisroel association. People and the house are undamaged. Police and the community confirmed the attack, which occurred around 3 a.m.
According to police, the Molotov cocktails were functional and burning. However, the building did not catch fire because the attackers missed it. The Molotov cocktails only flew onto the sidewalk and went out there. According to Tagesspiegel information, police security guards were on site, but were unable to prevent the attack or detain the perpetrators.
The criminal police are investigating, and additional patrol cars are currently driving through the neighborhood. Brunnenstrasse is cordoned off about 100 meters in front of the synagogue. Pedestrians have to avoid Rheinsberger and Strelitzer Straße. The community’s grounds are accessible under police protection. Photographers and onlookers gathered in front of the police barriers in the morning, but the situation was peaceful.
Shlomo Rottman was also on site in the morning. He is Jewish, lives in Jerusalem and has been a guest in Berlin since Tuesday. He is currently attending a rabbinical seminar at the synagogue. Rottman told Tagesspiegel that he had observed on the street on Tuesday how a man was filming all the buildings, including the synagogue. He then called the police, who explained to him that filming was not prohibited there. “I’m shocked,” Rottman told Tagesspiegel. “I came from the war in Israel and thought I would be safe in Germany. Now I feel more unsafe here than in Israel.”
Another incident occurred on site around 8 a.m. While the police were still working on the crime scene on site, a man drove up on an e-scooter, got off and walked towards the synagogue. He made inflammatory statements, as a police spokesman told the Tagesspiegel upon request. The police temporarily arrested the man to check his identity, after which he was able to move on. The community published a video on the X platform showing the arrest.
