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‘Child Killers’: Vienna Uber Driver Attacks Jewish Family, Forces Them Out of Vehicle

Jewish community of Vienna and allies attend a memorial event to commemorate the November pogroms 1938, in Vienna, Austria, Nov. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elisabeth Mandl
An Uber driver in Vienna assaulted a Jewish father after hurling verbal abuse at he and his family and forcing them out of the vehicle last week, according to the Jewish Religious Community (IKG), a communal organization for Austria’s Jews.
“In recent weeks, there have been frequent antisemitic incidents involving Uber and airport taxi drivers. These involved people who were identifiable as Jewish due to their clothing, spoke Hebrew or Yiddish, identified themselves as Israeli citizens, or simply mentioned that they had traveled from Israel,” the IKG stated in a Facebook post on Monday.
Describing the incident, the IKG said that an unnamed Jewish couple with children aged 10 and 13 traveled with a 75-year-old woman, intending to ride in an Uber from the airport to a birthday meal at a restaurant.
“When the driver learned en route that some of his passengers were from Israel, he began to verbally abuse them, calling them ‘murderers’ and saying he didn’t want ‘child killers’ in his vehicle,” the IKG recounted. “He pulled over to the side of the road and forced the shocked family to leave the vehicle. He also got out and continued the insults, which ultimately culminated in a physical assault on the father.”
Uber has reportedly suspended the driver, and the family filed a police report. On Tuesday, Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, head of the Conference of European Rabbis, said on X, “Thank you, Uber, for swiftly suspending him and opening an investigation. Decisive action against hate matters.”
Oskar Deutsch, president of the Jewish Community of Vienna, released a statement about the alleged hate crime.
“When a taxi driver learns that his passengers are Jewish and some are from Israel, he calls the five people antisemitic and forces them to get off. The crying of the children is not enough for him. He pushes the father and threatens him with more blows,” Deutsch posted on Facebook. “I thank the team of Antisemitismus-Meldestelle der IKG [the organization’s Antisemitism Reporting Center], who took care of the family, among other things accompanied them to the report to the police and continues to provide comprehensive care.”
Deutsch put the attack in the broader context of hate targeting Jews in Austria, referencing recent antisemitic incidents in the country.
“This antisemitic incident happened last week in Vienna. It’s not enough to condemn antisemitic discrimination, abuse, threats, and physical assault,” he said. “A Salzburg cinema does not want to show a movie about Jewish life in Salzburg, Israeli guests are thrown out of restaurants — we are registering a significant accumulation of such incidents in the past weeks.”
Late last month, a group of anti-Israel activists burst into the opening of the Salzburg Festival — one of the world’s premier events for opera, music, and drama — waving Palestinian flags and shouting antisemitic slogans.
As Austrian Vice-Chancellor Andreas Babler began his opening speech at the event, six individuals stormed the stage, aggressively waving Palestinian flags and shouting “Blood on your hands!” along with other antisemitic slurs.
In another incident last month, a group of well-known Israeli classical musicians reported being refused service at a pizzeria in Vienna after staff overheard them speaking Hebrew.
One of the musicians recounted that while they were ordering their food, the waiter asked them which language they were speaking. When they replied in Hebrew, the waiter allegedly told them, “In that case, leave. I’m not serving you food.”
Cellist Amit Peled described in a social media post the “initial shock and humiliation” of the incident targeting him and his colleagues, violinist Hagai Shaham and pianist Julia Gurvitch, while they dined at the Ramazotti Italian restaurant.
“What struck us even more deeply was what came next — or rather, what didn’t. The people around us were clearly startled, some offered sympathetic glances … and then, quietly, they went back to their dinners, their conversations, their wine — as though nothing had happened,” he wrote. “Welcome to Europe, 2025.”
In a separate incident last month, an Israeli couple was denied access to a campsite in Ehrwald, a village in western Austria, after attempting to make a reservation to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary.
According to local media, the couple attempted to register at the campsite, but after revealing their Israeli passports, they were denied entry and asked to leave, forcing them to find alternative accommodations.
“We have no place for Jews here,” the campsite operator reportedly told them.
When asked for comment, the campsite operators told the German newspaper Jüdische Allgemeine, “These people should much rather take care of the many children in Gaza. Otherwise, there is nothing to say.”
Then on Aug. 8, anti-Israel activists attacked Rabbi Shmuley Boteach at an anti-Israel rally in Vienna. He told Euronews that he felt “humiliated and shocked that this can happen in 2025 in Europe just for wearing a kippah.”
Boteach wrote about the crime on Aug. 11, asking “Vienna must choose: Will it be the city of Mozart, of Schubert, of Mahler — or will it remain the city where Jews are attacked in the streets and statues of Jew-haters stand tall?”
The rabbi vowed that “for my part, I will not back down. I will wear my kippah in Vienna and all over Europe again. I will walk those streets standing tall (well, however tall a five-foot-six Jew can be) again. And I will make sure the world knows what happened there.”
Noting the trend of antisemitism surging across Europe in the aftermath of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, amid the ensuing war in Gaza, Deutsch warned of an environment causing Jews to be cautious about identifying themselves publicly.
“Where is this supposed to go?” he asked. “It is unbearable that in the face of the threat, Jewish women and Jews constantly remember to hide Jewish symbols, not speak the language or avoid certain regions altogether. It can’t go on like this!”
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War

Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests

A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan

Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.