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November 25, 2013 1:10 pm
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‘Knockout Game’ Victim Says Jews Are Being Targeted Because They ‘Look Gentle’

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avatar by Zach Pontz

Footage showing Shmuel Perl, 24, being approached by his alleged attackers in the 'Knockout Game.' Photo: Screenshot / ABC.

Footage showing a Jewish man being approached by his alleged attackers in the 'Knockout Game.' Photo: Screenshot / ABC.

One of the Jewish victim’s of the increasingly popular “Knockout Game” has spoken out, telling the New York Post he believes Jews are being targeted because they “look gentle” and “look like [they] won’t fight back.”

Photography intern Israel Blizovsky had just finished working a Crown Heights engagement party when he was attacked on the street.

“He was very strong. I was in shock,” the 19-year-old from Beersheva, Israel said of his attacker. “I saw a large group of black teenagers coming. I moved to the side to let them pass. Then, all of a sudden, when I was passing right next to them, I felt a punch in the face.”

“They just kept walking. They were all laughing,” he told The Post through a Hebrew translator. “They said something right after he punched me, but I don’t understand English. It looked like they were making fun of me.”

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The “Knockout Game” consists of gangs seeking an unsuspecting victim who one member tries to knock out with one punch. Similar attacks are being reported in St. Louis, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and elsewhere, but in Brooklyn, recent targets have almost exclusively been Jewish.

Four perpetrators of the “Knockout Game” were apprehended in Borough Park, Brooklyn on Thursday after attacking a Jewish man there in what investigators called a copycat attack.

Community leaders have said at least eight attacks have occurred in the last several weeks. The New York Post reported that the NYPD was aware of seven of the eight attacks.

Barry Sugar, head of the Jewish Leadership Council, told The New York Post he has been asking New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio for help with anti-Jewish attacks since August, but has received no response.

“We were concerned that the candidates weren’t aware of what was happening,” he told The Post. “We made several attempts to reach out to Mr. de Blasio, but our overtures were not met with any kind of response.”

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