Canadian pop star Justin Bieber is being sued by his former neighbor after the singer’s bodyguard allegedly used anti-Semitic epithets against him.
Plaintiff Jeff Schwartz claims members of the pop star’s security detail ridiculed him after he and a friend requested Bieber stop speeding around their Los Angeles area neighborhood in his Ferrari, calling him a “little Jew boy” multiple times and engaging in confrontational behavior, according to a Thursday report by TMZ, a media outlet specializing in celebrity news.
Schwartz and his wife are now suing the 21-year-old for emotional distress stemming from the alleged incident.
The new allegations mark one of several fractious episodes between the two former neighbors, as Bieber and his entourage egged Schwartz’s home in January 2014. Bieber later paid $80,000 in damages and was put on probation after pleading no contest to vandalism.
Outside of raucous parties and drag-racing throughout the neighborhood’s streets, Schwartz claimed that the pop star used obscenities against his wife and daughter and spit on him, an allegation Bieber denied.
In 2013, the pop singer also stirred a great deal of controversy after visiting the Anne Frank House, an Amsterdam museum that preserves the memory of the young Jewish Holocaust victim who later became recognized after her memoirs were published following World War II.
Bieber wrote a message in the museum’s guestbook, declaring that he hoped Frank would have been a “belieber” — a term used for one of the pop star’s many adoring fans.
In 2011, Bieber famously performed in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, stating that he would never forget the much-anticipated show to 35,000 fans. He later got a Christian-inspired Hebrew tattoo during his visit to the Jewish state.
By Justin Jalil
