On Tuesday and Wednesday we posted about the kippa-wearing young man who was attacked by culture-enrichers on the street in Berlin. Since then it has been reported that the victim, whose name is Adam Armoush, is not in fact Jewish, but was given the kippa by a friend in Israel.

In addition to the German-language interview below, Deutsche Welle has an English-language interview with Adam Armoush, in which he says, “I’m not Jewish. I grew up in Israel in a Arabian family.” [sic] He hasn’t said so, but since his first name is Adam, one might assume that he is an Arab Christian.

Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

00:00 Here’s Adam with me now. —Last night

00:05 you were seriously attacked. How did it happen?

00:10 First, I find it very sad and I am disappointed…

00:15 first of all, I’m disappointed because there were so many people

00:20 who saw it all, but only one of those many people, only one

00:25 lady said something and reacted at all.

00:30 Yesterday we were walking with my friend,

00:35 totally normally with my kippa,

00:40 and across the street there were three boys

00:45 and they started cursing at us when they saw that we were putting our kippas on.

00:50 We ignored them at first,

00:55 and we kept walking. At some point my friend told them to stop

01:00 and then one came towards me and took his belt out,

01:05 and he started hitting me with it.

01:10 We also saw in the video that you were seriously hurt. How are you doing now?

01:15 Did you need to see a doctor? —I’m doing fine

01:21 not fantastic, but fine. I couldn’t sleep at night, because I was a little bit in pain.

01:26 But rather

01:31 psychological, than physical.

01:36 You probably intuitively took your cell phone and recorded it all, and held on.

01:41 How do you feel when you watch this recording now?

01:46 I’m very sad to see it. And at the same time I’m

01:51 glad that we were able to do something with the video,

01:56 and I hope soon that they — the police — find the perpetrators;

02:01 the police showed a lot of concern as well,

02:06 and so it’s important to record the situation

02:11 and to help the police that way.

02:16 Who was the man who attacked you? — He was speaking Arabic.

02:21 I cannot tell who he was.

02:26 But he was speaking a Syrian dialect.

02:31 So I could perhaps say that he was from Syria, but I’m not sure.

02:37 You already mentioned that the psychological pain is possibly

02:42 worse than the physical pain. How is it if you go out now on the street, perhaps also with a kippa?

02:47 Do you still feel safe in Berlin? —No, not as much as I thought,

02:52 because at the beginning — Well, I got this kippa a couple of days ago

02:57 as a gift from a friend, when I was in Israel. And he said that I simply shouldn’t

03:02 go out wearing a kippa, because it’s dangerous. And I didn’t believe him,

03:07 and I told him that something like that doesn’t happen in Germany, and

03:12 certainly not in Berlin. And it took less than five minutes

03:15 from the moment I went out with the kippa on

03:22 before we were attacked. And therefore I believe

03:27 that it’s a little — that I’m a little scared now,

03:32 and that I’m also disappointed.

03:37 And Adam, one more question for you: was this a first attack, or

03:42 the first animosity, that you experienced, or does this happen more often?

03:48 No, it was the first time; but it was my first time with kippa as well, so… —Yes.

03:53 So I don’t know how often something like that happens here. —Are you going to wear a kippa again?

03:58 I think so. Yes.

04:03 So we hope that the police find the perpetrator soon

04:08 and that he also gets consequences for it. —What I would also like to say

04:13 is that it’s very important that you don’t simply

04:18 close your eyes and keep going. At first my friend wanted

04:23 to run away; but I don’t find it right.

04:28 Because I didn’t do anything wrong and they [the perps] have to deal with it.

04:33 If they want to live in Germany then they have to deal with it. And when they don’t like it,