Main square of Venetian Ghetto. Photo: Wikipedia.

A group of Arabs brutally attacked an American yeshiva student visiting with his family in Venice, Italy, on Tuesday, knocking him unconscious. The incident took place at night as the student strolled the city center. According to Arutz Sheva, 15 Arab youth were involved in the incident.

According to Arutz Sheva  the attackers fled when a passerby spotted them and called police and medics.

An individual at the Chabad House in Venice who did not wish to be named told The Algemeiner that the student was recovering and that such incidents were rare in Venice. The source also indicated how the Jewish community would respond. “We will answer evil with kindness,” the source said.

The Milan-based Jewish Center for Documentation’s Observatory on Anti-Jewish Prejudice issued a report in December that showed the number of anti-Semitic episodes in the country rose significantly in 2012.

”We observed approximately 70 cases so far this year, most of them graffiti and online attacks, over 40% more than last year,” said Observatory researcher Stefano Gatti. ”The boom might be due partly to more efficient data-gathering, but the episodes have undeniably increased,” he added.

Gatti pointed out that Italian pundits and politicians ”such as Silvio Berlusconi, Beppe Grillo or Piergiorgio Odifreddi” are now writing discriminatory posts and telling racist jokes. ”Making certain issues seem normal, even funny, is one of the root causes of the rise in anti-Semitic episodes in Italy,” Gatti concluded .