Scandal at Palma´s Jewish synagogue

A helper at the Jewish synagogue claims he needed hospital treatment after he was assaulted by the president of the Israeli community, while the president says that he sustained injuries when he fell. The alleged incident occurred on the last Friday of the year. Benjamin Ossovsky, aged 72, told our sister newspaper Ultima Hora that the community's president, Rolando Dayan, was conducting the service when he assaulted him and bundled him out into the street. The accused, for his part, has denied the allegations and has filed a complaint against Mr Ossovsky in the Palma court. Mr Dayan told Ultima Hora that Mr Ossovsky helped out on occasions, for which he received a small sum. On the day in question, Mr Dayan told our sister paper, he began to shout and insult the community, adding that he quietened down but later grabbed a 15-kilo candelabra and narrowly missed hitting Mr Dayan, who says that Mr Ossovsky then slipped on a step and fell over. Mr Dayan said that a few months earlier he had been attacked by Mr Ossovsky with a wooden bench in a shop on the Paseo Maritimo, but on that occasion he did not file a complaint. But the story which Mr Ossovsky told Ultima Hora was quite different. An Argentine who has lived on the island for eight years, he accused Mr Dayan of marginalising certain people, and he was speaking out to defend them. He claims that Mr Dayan took him by the wrist and tried to drag him out of the synagogue, and then pushed him over. Mr Ossovsky says he tried to grab the candelabra to steady himself but fell and was then dragged out into the street. He was taken to Son Dureta by ambulance and is now receiving outpatient treatment. The incident was witnessed by about 60 people, according to Mr Dayan, who was speaking from the Canary Islands. He said he was certain that the whole truth would be known. He hinted that Mr Ossovsky may have drunk a little wine that day and when mixed with the pills he has to take, caused a violent reaction.