Headstones Toppled At Brooklyn Jewish Cemetery
(JTA) — Headstones were toppled at a cemetery that serves the Jewish community in Brooklyn, New York.
The vandalism at the Washington Cemetery was discovered on Saturday night, according to reports.
New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind tweeted photos of some of the downed headstones on Saturday night. He said he was alerted to the vandalism by the Boro Park Shomrim organization, a Jewish security patrol.
.@BPShomrim alerted me that stones @ Washington Cemetery are down. I’ve spoken w/ the NYPD who are investigating. I’ll be there in the am. pic.twitter.com/j3wHa1dzEp
— Dov Hikind (@HikindDov) March 5, 2017
The New York Police Department’s hate crimes unit reportedly is investigating the incident.
It is not known who toppled the headstones or why. In 2010, some 200 headstones were toppled in the same Brooklyn cemetery, also over a Friday night and Saturday, when the cemetery is closed.
The vandalism at the Washington Cemetery brings to four the number of Jewish cemeteries reported to have been vandalized in the last two weeks, including a second one in New York, the Waad Hakolel Cemetery in Rochester. Dozens of gravestones were toppled and damaged at cemeteries in St. Louis and Philadelphia as well.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30