(JTA) – Allegations of antisemitic harassment of a Jewish student in Germany that forced him to leave his school has spurred demands for a federal investigation by Germany’s top Jewish leader. The student’s parents said they pulled their 14-year-old son from the Friedenauer Community School in March after four months of verbal and physical harassment, culminating in a brutal attack. The parents had chosen the school because of its multicultural student body, and the harassment came from students of Arab and Turkish background, they reported. In March, according to the parents, “he was attacked and almost strangled, and [one of the pupils] pulled a toy gun on him that looked like a real gun. And the whole crowd of kids laughed. He was completely shaken.” Early on, when some pupils learned the boy was Jewish, one who had been friendly told him they couldn’t be friends anymore because “Jews are all murderers.”

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, demanded on April 3 that the education ministry investigate the incident. He also asked Muslim leaders in Germany to combat “antisemitic tendencies in their ranks with all the determination they can muster.” The school leadership said on its website that the alleged perpetrators in the incident would be held accountable. Principal Uwe Runkel told the London Jewish Chronicle that he “deeply regrets” the incidents and wishes the student had not left the school. The boy has been enrolled in an English-language high school.