Jewish Cemetery Attacked by Vandals in Philadelphia

Dozens of headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia were vandalised over the weekend, police said.

The vandalism was especially worrisome because it comes less than a week after a similar incident at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis, said Nancy Baron-Baer, the Anti-Defamation League’s regional director for the Eastern Pennsylvania, South Jersey and DE region.

A police spokeswoman said the rest of Mt. Carmel Cemetery was inspected and roughly 100 additional headstones were knocked over.

Another high profile anti-Semitic incident occurred just last week in St. Louis, when more than 200 Jewish headstones were vandalized. A day after word of the cemetery vandalism sparked outrage across the country, a rash of bomb threats targeted Jewish Community Centers in the Delaware Valley. Jewish community centres across the United States have also reported a surge in bomb threats, but all were hoaxes.

Last week, Muslim activists along with the Jewish governor of Missouri, Eric Greitens, were among those to volunteer to help fix the St. Louis-area Jewish cemetery where at least 170 gravestones were toppled.

Meanwhile, a reward money of $10,000 has been announced for information that lead to arrest of those who are responsible for the act. “#Philadelphia Jewish cemetery desecration is shocking and a source of worry“.

Yosef Goldman, a local rabbi with Temple Beth Zion – Beth Israel, said on Facebook that he has been heartened by the interfaith response to the vandalism in Philadelphia.

“Seeing this in person was very devastating”, El-Messidi said in a statement.

Philadelphia Police have called the incident “an abominable crime that appears to target these particular headstones”, but would not yet classify it as a hate crime or a specifically anti-Jewish act. Last Wednesday, after Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens called for volunteers to assist in the cleanup of the Chesed Shel Emeth Society Cemetery, more than 1,000 people, including Vice President Mike Pence, showed up to help clean up.

Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney denounced the attackers, saying, “my heart breaks for the families who found their loved ones’ headstones toppled. Just as we helped in St. Louis, we are going to help here in Philadelphia“. Trump was criticized for his handling of the St. Louis incident, which detractors claim was neither swift or forceful enough in its condemnation. He said one of the first people to arrive after he did was Tarek El-Messidi, a Muslim activist who helped start a campaign to raise money to help fix Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery in University City, Mo. “We feel the pain of the families whose grave sites of loved ones were desecrated and look to the authorities to apprehend and bring to justice those responsible for this heinous act”.