The Santa Monica Police Department is probing an assault on an Israeli man at the Santa Monica Pier, a popular tourist attraction west of downtown Los Angeles, on Sunday as a hate crime, a department spokesman told JNS.

The victim, who was speaking Hebrew, sustained minor injuries from the attack, according to Lt. Lewis Gilmour, a department spokesman. Gilmour said officers are investigating the attack as a hate crime “based on statements made during the incident and circumstances reported.”

The Jewish Journal identified the victim as Ariel Yaakov Marciano, 24.

Marciano, who was wearing a Star of David necklace when he was attacked, told the Journal that he was visiting from Sacramento for his cousin’s bar mitzvah.

When the assailants noticed he was talking Hebrew to an Israeli m

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