Warsaw, Poland - Chief Rabbi Attacked

Krakow, Poland - Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was punched and sprayed with what appeared to be pepper spray Shabbos afternoon by an unidentified man in downtown Warsaw, but escaped without injuries from what police said may have been an anti-Semitic attack.

Rabbi Schudrich was heading to Warsaw's main synagogue with a group of people when a young man yelled out "Poland for Poles!" so the Rabbi approached the gentleman to ask him why he said such things and his reaction was to punch him in the chest. "I was going to hit him back, but before I had a chance to hit him he sprayed me with some kind of spray - maybe pepper spray," the Rabbi said.
He said his eyes still burned from the spray but that he was otherwise uninjured.
The man, who quickly fled, was being sought by police, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tomasz Sklodowski. An image of the attacker's face was drafted with the help of witnesses and distributed to police throughout the city, he said. "We're treating this as a possible anti-Semitic provocation, although it may have simply been an act of hooliganism," Sklodowski said.