Anti-Semitic Acts In Basel Traced To Jewish Student

GENEVA (JTA) - A 23-year-old Jewish medical student arrested in Basel was described by police as the perpetrator of a campaign of virulent anti-Semitic graffiti, harassment and death threats in that city last month.

The disclosure by the police that Philip Gotchel, son of a prominent Jewish family, was solely responsible for the acts called unprecedented in Switzerland, stunned Jews and non-Jews alike. The Jewish community expressed deep sympathy for the "shame and scandal to his family." Gotchel has been placed under psychiatric care.

The young man, nephew of a leading physician, was said to be an excellent student at the Basel medical school. Most of the anti-Semitic tracts were directed against fellow Jewish students, their families and their non-Jewish friends.