Chabad emissary Rabbi Mendel Deitsch was brutally attacked at Zhitomir's central station. Public is asked to pray for his recovery.

Rabbi Mendel Deitsch, a longtime Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in France and more recently in Israel, was brutally attacked at Zhitomir’s central train station early Friday morning.

After the attack, Deitsch was found and transported to a local hospital.

The motive for the attack remains unknown. Violent anti-Semitic attacks in Ukraine are rare, and there is no indication at this time that it was anti-Semitic in nature.

Deitsch has been active in strengthening Jewish life in the former Soviet Union for many years, and is a central organizer of hospitality and programming at the burial site of Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi.

Rabbi Schneur Zalman is the founder of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and is buried in Haditch, Ukraine, where Deitsch is believed to have spent Rosh Hashanah.

At the beginning of Shababt, Deitsch underwent an operation in Zhitomir. His situation is described as "extremely critical."

The public is asked to pray for the full recovery of Menachem Mendel Mordechai ben Miriam.