Rabbi stands up for himself after verbal assault

(ALGEMEINER) A rabbi extracted an apology from anti-Semites on bikes who verbally assaulted him as he was walking to shul in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Rabbi Michy Rav-Noy wrote on Facebook that the lesson was, “Jews! Stand up for yourselves!”

The “main point” of his story, the rabbi said, was “showing them we won’t put up with it and having them apologize.”

At 9:15 a.m., the rabbi was walking to synagogue when two men on bicycles screamed, “There goes a Jew! Look at that Jew!”

Rabbi Rav-Noy said, “I yelled right back at them, ‘Come here now and say it to my face!’”

As they rode away, he yelled at them, “Don’t ride away like sissies!”

But, the rabbi said, “G-d put me at the right place at the right time. A police car drove by. I let out a loud whistle and yelled, ‘I need the police!” A lady officer pulled over. I told her what happened and stressed ‘NOT IN THE U.S.’ – please go after them.”

Moments later, three blocks away, the two men were being held against a wall by two policemen, with their hands being held behind their backs.

“The lady cop apologized to me and said, ‘I can’t do much more; they didn’t officially commit a crime... but (with a half smile on her face) the good news is that one of them has a warrant and is going to jail today.”

“I told her, ‘You punished them by stopping them and making them stand like this. You gave them a message that they are accountable.’”

“‘They need to apologize,’ I said. She agreed.”

“We both walked over and I told them to apologize. I told them, ‘We suffered for 2,000 years; we shouldn’t have to go through this in the U.S.’ They apologized again.”

Rav-Noy directs the Los Angeles chapter of the Friendship Circle, a Jewish charity that runs programs for children with special needs.