After Halloween, Grave Digger Finds 60-Year-Old Remains Dug Up In Jewish Cemetery
Part of the cemetery where the remains were dug up. Image by Google Maps
By Ari Feldman November 7, 2019
Police are investigating an incident in which a 61-year-old grave in a Jewish cemetery was dug up in Hartford, Connecticut, possibly on Halloween.
The incident occurred in the cemetery of Agudas Achim, a 130-year-old Orthodox congregation, and was discovered on Wednesday November 6.
“We look this way, we see a big pile of dirt, we’re the only ones that dig here, so we walked over here, come to find out, discovered there’s a hole here,” a gravedigger for the cemetery, Tommy Valentin, told a local Fox affiliate.
Valentin also said that he found two dead birds at the scene, floating in rain water at the bottom of the grave.
Local news reports say that while the identity of the body dug up has not been disclosed, the tombstone said the grave’s occupant was buried in 1958.
“They found what appeared to be a hand-dug grave, other words it wasn’t done by machinery, it looked like maybe shovels, the grave looked like it was disturbed maybe three or four days ago,” said Lt. Aaron Boisvert of the Hartford police.
Though the cemetery is clearly marked as Jewish, police have not determined whether the disinterment was a hate crime. The Connecticut chapter of the Anti-Defamation League declined to speculate on the motive for the crime but called the incident “disconcerting and upsetting.” Jewish cemeteries around the country have seen graves marked with anti-Semitic graffiti and had their gravestones toppled or stolen in recent years.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
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.
