Hoax Alert: Edinburgh Kippah Attack (2016)

In what proved to be the last quite frankly stupid alleged ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ of 2016.

We have the case of Rabbi Yossi Bodenheim, the Jewish Chaplain for Scottish Universities, who:

‘Told Parliament last week that he was walking with his wife and children in central Edinburgh last month when his wife was shoved and his kippah taken from his head and thrown to the ground.

“My wife and I took our four young children for a walk in this beautiful city. However, as we were walking, a woman pushed my wife aside, grabbed my kippah, threw it on the ground and ran away,” he told lawmakers, according to reports. “That took place less than a mile from here, in front of my young children. You can imagine how distressed they were.”

Bodenheim also said that anti-Semitism is a problem on university campuses.

“As Scotland’s Jewish student chaplain, my role is to bring chesed [loving kindness] to Jewish students and to make sure that they are comfortable on campus, whether it is ensuring their welfare, providing social and educational events, or just being a listening ear,” he said. “I also have to help them cope with anti-Semitism because, unfortunately, it is an issue on campus as well.”’ (1)

Now let me call this exactly what it is: bullshit.

In the first instance the attack itself is odd, because it involves an apparently silent woman who was desperate to attack Rabbi Bodenheim’s kippah.

This is weird precisely because while Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox jews place a lot of spiritual value in keeping their kippot on their head. Non-jews don’t tend to see it as anything beyond a funny hat and knowing that to attack a religious jew’s kippah is to directly assault their spiritual relationship with Hashem is going to be rare outside of religious jews and those who study Judaism.

In essence: how on earth did this mysterious woman know that knocking Rabbi Bodenheim’s kippah off his head would significantly impact him and cause an apparent existential crisis in his spiritual well-being?

In the second; why did the mysterious woman ignore the wig or headscarf of Rabbi Bodenheim’s wife, which as a modest and pious jewish woman she must have been wearing? If you are unhinged and looking to insult jews by attacking the outward signs of Judaism then why not go for the jewish woman’s wig and/or head-covering?

This mysterious female attacker apparently knew all about the spiritual importance of kippot, but doesn’t seem to have known about the basic and strict religious modesty rules imposed on jewish women.

Isn’t that strange?

In the third; how is it that we know so little about this mystery woman more than eight years after an ‘assault’ in a public place that occurred near the centre of Edinburgh? When Edinburgh is a city absolutely festooned with CCTV cameras, which surely must have provided some kind of information if it actually happened. (2)

So to summarise: we have assault on a prominent rabbi and his family in broad daylight that no one else appears to have seen by a mysterious woman in the middle of a city filled with CCTV cameras, which we have no video, photos or a description of over a month later.

I call bullshit.

References

(1) http://www.jta.org/2016/12/12/news-opinion/world/scottish-rabbi-says-he-and-family-were-victims-of-anti-semitic-attack; http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4891777,00.html

(2) http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/crime/cctv-plan-to-monitor-the-whole-of-edinburgh-1-3810808