Polish chief rabbi attacked in Warsaw....

Doesn't sound like hooliganism to me.

Poland's chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, was attacked in downtown Warsaw Saturday by an unknown man, but escaped without injuries from what police said may have been an anti-Semitic attack, an official said Sunday.

"We're treating this as a possible anti-Semitic provocation, although it may have simply been an act of hooliganism," said Interior Ministry spokesman Tomasz Sklodowski.

The young man, who attacked Schudrich with his hands, fled and is being sought by police, Sklodowski said, adding that the attacker's portrait, drafted with the help of witnesses, has been sent to all police patrols in Warsaw.

"The fact that it happened just as the pope is visiting Poland and going to Auschwitz means the attack could have had an anti-Semitic motive, that it was meant to tarnish the image of Poland," Sklodowski said.

Schudrich told the Apcom news service he was walking when a man stopped him and, after asking him a few questions, hit him. He said the attacker yelled "Poland for Poles.

"That's a well-known pre-World War II slogan which basically means 'Jews, get out of Poland,' and I didn't like hearing it, so I approached the gentleman to ask him why he said such things and his reaction was to punch me in the chest," Schudrich told The Associated Press.

"I was going to hit him back, but before I had a chance to hit him he sprayed me with some kind of spray, maybe pepper spray."