Rabbi Avraham Levine never imagined that years after immigrating from Russia to Israel he would fall victim to a brutal anti-Semitic attack in the heart of the Jewish state.
But less than three months ago, he was beaten up by teenage skinheads as he walked home in the city of Petah Tikva on Tel Aviv's outskirts.
"They jumped on me, beat me and cursed my mother in Russian, then they returned with sticks and beat me up. My arm was broken but only God saved my life," said Levine, 38, who arrived in Israel from Russia in 1995.
"They shouted `Zhids leave Russia!' In Russia, I would hit someone if he said zhid. How can someone do it in Israel?" he said.
Zhid is a derogatory term in Russian for a Jew.
The number of incidents with a neo-Nazi, fascist or anti-Semitic streak has increased dramatically over the past 15 years in the Jewish state, said the Dmir Center, which monitors and assists victims of such attacks.
A new trend has developed since the 1990s -- anti-Semitic attacks carried out by "Jewish" citizens, said the center's chief, Zalman Gilichenski.
The vast majority of these incidents are thought to have been carried out by Russian nationalists, Gilichenski said.
The nationalists came to Israel as part of the massive immigration wave from former Soviet states in the 1990s. While they are Jewish under Israel's law of return -- meaning that either they, one of their parents or one of their grandparents are Jewish -- they do not consider themselves Jewish.
Gilichenski receives reports of anti-Semitic incidents in Israel on a daily basis and he estimates there are some 500 incidents a year in Israel.
Israeli police are reluctant to brand the crimes as anti-Semitic, instead using the term vandalism for racist attacks and desecration of graves and synagogues.
"The law does not provide us with the ability to even define an incident in Israel as being of an anti-Semitic character, and they all fall within the general term of vandalism," said one justice ministry official who asked to remain anonymous.
Expressions of anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism in Israel are abundant.
In recent years, dozens of school and synagogue walls have been sprayed with swastikas and racist slurs in Russian.
The most serious incident was recorded when the great synagogue of Petah Tikva was vandalized and desecrated with anti-Semitic slurs in May 2005.
The same month, military police arrested a soldier of Soviet origin who had a Nazi swastika tattooed on his arm and who said he hated Jews.
Shortly afterwards, another soldier was indicted for setting up the first neo-Nazi Web site in Israel. He was sentenced to 200 hours community service.
An Israeli Russian nationalist Web site, the "Russian Nationalist Center," offers a glimpse into the world of anti-Semites who are citizens in Israel.
Among its goals is to "accustom Russian people living in Israel to Russian national culture and awaken national consciousness," to prevent "any and all forms of Russian people converting to Judaism," to help Russians in Israel return to the motherland, and prevent "Jews from returning to Russia."
In statements posted on the website, the nationalists say they choose to live among the people they despise because it is their duty to help fellow Russians get in touch with their roots.
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