‘Heil Hitler’ shouted at Estonian chief rabbi and his children on way to shul

Man hurls antisemitic abuse at Jewish leader and his family while they walked to synagogue

Estonia’s chief rabbi and two of his children were accosted on the street on their way to synagogue by a man who shouted antisemitic insults at them.

Police arrested the man, who is 27 years old and was not named in Estonian media, on Sunday at a shopping mall in the capital Tallinn, the Estonian Public Broadcasting Service reported on Monday.

Rabbi Shmuel Kot said the man shouted “Sieg Heil” and “Heil Hitler” at him on Saturday while Kot was walking to synagogue with two of his children ages 7 and 12. Kot filed a complaint with police, who used security camera and other footage to identity a suspect and arrest him ahead of an indictment, Kot said. He added that such incidents are “very rare” in Estonia, the northernmost Baltic state, located just south of Finland, on the other end of the Gulf of Finland.

The incident was the first time the two children had witnessed any such harassment, Kot said, but they “were not too shaken, and frankly I think this whole incident was over blown in how it was covered in the media,” he said.