Jewish Couple’s Headstone Vandalized at Indiana Cemetery
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
(JTA) — An anti-Semitic message was spray-painted across the headstone of a Jewish couple buried in the cemetery of a small Indiana town — one of the only headstones bearing a Jewish name.
The words F***|ing Jew were spray-painted in white across the back of the double headstone, on top of the large Jewish star, in the Scottsburg Cemetery.
Jarin Gladstein, a grandson of the couple, told the local media that he was “livid, upset, sick,” over the desecration.
Two other headstones in the cemetery were later discovered vandalized.
On Monday, Gladstein posted a photo of his grandparents’ headstone on Facebook and in less than 24 hours had received 3,100 likes and other emotions. The photo has been shared nearly 15,000 times.
“I couldn’t believe the amount of shares and just the messages,” Gladstein told local news station WHAS11. “I have no idea who they are and the kindness – people’s kind words. It makes you feel good.”
Gladstein said members of his family scrubbed away the paint, though remnants remain and the image is seared into his memory.
“I’ll always know it happened,” he said. “It doesn’t matter how clean it is. It happened. I’ve seen it. Once I’ve seen it, it’s burned in my head.”
Gladstein has offered a reward that leads to the capture of the vandals.
Speaking of his grandparents, he said, “Everybody knew they were great people, and to know that somebody that has honestly no idea who they are to do this is just sick.”
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
