Danny Mayer walks from the Morley Galleria entrance with the Hasidic Rebbe and his assistant where the men were set upon by a group of youths. Picture: Steve Ferrier/The West Australian

A visiting Hasidic Jewish leader has been the target of anti-Semitic abuse and threatened with physical violence outside the Morley Galleria.

The Rebbe, who is in Perth on a lecture tour, and his 21-year-old assistant were taunted by a group of six teenagers outside the shopping centre in broad daylight on Monday, a friend of the two men said.

Danny Mayer had come to pick up the pair about 1.30pm when he saw the Rebbe being accosted.

When Mr Mayer ushered the visitors into his car the youths began banging on it.

“They were telling us to ‘F*** off’, that we were killers and they wanted to ‘fix us up’,” Mr Mayer said.

“They literally wanted us to come out and fight with them.

“It’s very frightening. Obviously something you don’t expect in a suburban shopping centre to be accosted and treated this way.

“It was only when I took my camera out that they started running away.”

Mr Mayer said he reported the incident to police and shopping centre management.

A spokesman for Federation Centres, formerly Centro, said security was aware of the incident but unable to locate the culprits.

Morley MP Ian Britza said yesterday’s attack was “very sad” given the large Jewish population in his electorate but came as no surprise.

“We’ve been saying for a long time that there is an element that wants to bring this (anti-Semitism) into our nation,” Mr Britza said.

“Now it’s happened on a small scale, what else could happen?

“We need to protect all people from this kind of violent approach.”