A Jewish woman suffered stab wounds to the shoulder and cheek after her and her brother were attacked in Melbourne on Saturday night.

The siblings, who were aged 22 and 25 and both wearing clothing identifying them as Jewish, were approached by an assailant in Caulfield North, a suburb of the city with a large Jewish community.

They were approached by a Caucasian male, described as being in his early 20s.

In a statement given to the Australian Jewish News, Victoria Police said that “an unknown man approached them (the victims) without speaking and hit the man and cut the woman with an unknown object before walking away.

“The woman has been taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries, the man was treated at the scene for minor injuries.”

The police also said there was no evidence to suggest the attack was racially motivated.

However, Dr Dvir Abramovich, chariman of Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission, told the Herald Sun that “if this assault, which is shocking on many levels, was in fact driven by antisemitism, it should be investigated as a hate-crime.

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this ugly and violent attack on individuals who were visibly identifiable as Jews, and our thoughts are with the victims.”