Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Jewish, Catholic Headstones Damaged In Rome Cemetery

ROME (JTA) — Unidentified individuals damaged dozens of gravestones and memorials in both the Catholic and Jewish sections of one of Rome’s main cemeteries.

According to the Italian media, the damage was discovered Friday morning during an inspection before the Verano cemetery opened.

The culprits smashed or toppled crosses as well as Stars of David and damaged headstones, tombs, vases and memorial plaques. Newspaper reports said surveillance cameras had filmed what appeared to be several youths entering the cemetery during the night and then running through it smashing tombs.

In a statement, the Rome Jewish Community said it was too soon to determine if anti-Semitism had played a role in the incident.

“We are awaiting developments in the investigation by [law enforcement] to ascertain the causes and responsibility for this act,” it said.

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 [email protected], 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.