Rabbi David Rutman removed his skullcap Friday afternoon in his Roselawn apartment and revealed his stitched and stapled head.
Three teens attacked him about 5:30 a.m. as he walked out of Keneseth Israel synagogue in nearby Springfield Township. His head struck the pavement and a stranger driving by stopped to help.
By noon, the rabbi held his bloody clothes and talked of the fear that may drive him from the neighborhood.
The 62-year-old orthodox Jew finished his studies and prayers at the synagogue Friday morning and began to walk home with his cane. He said hello to the teens just before they jumped him from behind, he said.
"It was a hate crime," he said. "You see the billfold I still have? They didn't even go after the money. They were trying to kill me."
Springfield Township police say they are not so sure. The rabbi did not hear the three African-American teens shouting anything. He could simply have been an easy target, Capt. Doug Frankenberg said.
"The only thing we know for sure is it's an assault," he said. "That's a gut feeling on his part (that the attack was anti-Semitic), but there's no evidence to indicate that."
To Rabbi Rutman, the attack was a reminder of the anti-Semitism the neighborhood battled two years ago. A member of a multiracial Roselawn gang admitted in court that his gang assaulted Jews as an initiation rite.
Rabbi Arthur Flicker's son was among the victims. Since then, Rabbi Flicker said, community dialogue has brought people together in one of Cincinnati's most diverse neighborhoods - which went from 75 percent white in 1980 to 53 percent African-American in 1995.
"In the last few years, there have been no swastikas painted on walls of synagogues or anything like that," Rabbi Flicker said. If anything, the relationship between Jews and African-Americans has been healing, said the Rev. Kathryn Bradley-Love, an African-American associate pastor at Roselawn Lutheran Church.
Those who learned of the attack Friday agree that what happened to the rabbi was terrible, but they are hesitant to blame the crime on prejudice.
"What we see in the Rabbi Rutman case is an example of urban violence," said Michael Rapp, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Cincinnati.
"We don't know at this point whether it was religiously or racially motivated."
Rabbi Rutman said he is looking for another neighborhood where he can walk to a synagogue and live with a feeling of safety.
"I'm not the kind of person who looks for publicity," he said. "This happened to me, and it could happen to other senior citizens. The next time, someone could be killed."
