Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Vandals Smash 40 Headstones In Historic French Jewish Cemetery

(JTA) – A Jewish cemetery in France saw 80 percent of its tombstones smashed by unidentified perpetrators.

A passerby noticed the devastation earlier this week at the disused, 18th-century Jewish cemetery of Waldwisse, a village situated 215 miles east of Paris, the France3 television channel reported yesterday.

The attack – the second one since 2014 – on the cemetery resulted in the smashing or toppling of 40 out of the graveyard’s 50 headstones. The earlier attack was perpetrated by three young men who received suspended sentences. Police is investigating the more recent incident.

Separately, a monument commemorating the Holocaust in the Greek municipality of Kavala was smashed one year after its unveiling in memory of 1,484 locals who were murdered, the Ekathimerini daily reported. The monument featured a marble façade emblazoned with a Star of David. The perpetrators of the vandalism at the monument used hammers to smash the façade on Wednesday, the daily reported.

Police have no suspects in custody.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

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.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version