Philadelphia Unions Offer To Repair And Secure Vandalized Jewish Cemetery
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — Two Philadelphia unions said they will provide free services to help repair and secure the Mt. Carmel Cemetery.
More than 100 gravestones were toppled and damaged over the weekend at the Jewish cemetery in the city’s Wissinoming section.
Bobby Henon, a Philadelphia council member with union ties who represents the Wissinoming neighborhood where the cemetery is located, tweeted Monday evening that the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council offered to replace the toppled headstones and that the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union Local 98 offered to install additional lighting and security cameras.
Good news: spoke w/ Building Trades which will restore headstones & IBEW will pay for/install security cameras @ Mt. Carmel cemetery.
— Bobby Henon (@BobbyHenon) February 27, 2017
Labor leader John Dougherty, of the Philadelphia Building & Construction Trades Council, told reporters that the vandalism is a “cowardly act of anti-Semitism that cannot be tolerated.”
His workers also offered to re-sod and clean the cemetery grounds.
Meanwhile, a Gofundme campaign for the Philadelphia cemetery has raised nearly $20,000 in 24 hours, double its original goal.
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