Nearly 50 Jewish Graves Desecrated in France
Forty-nine headstones were broken, knocked over or damaged in a small Jewish cemetery in northeastern France, the European Jewish Press reported. The 19th century cemetery, which contains 126 tombstones, is located in Bar-le-Duc, a town close to the German Border.
On Friday evening, a passerby noticed that the cemetery gate, which is usually shut, was actually open, and notified the police. No written messages were found at the scene and police think more than one individual may be responsible for the crime, given the weight of the large stones that were upturned. In the past year, several Jewish and Muslim cemeteries in northeastern France have been vandalized, JTA reported.
Public prosecutor Yves Badorc has opened an investigation and the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism has asked that he “take into consideration the racist character of the degradations in this old Jewish cemetery, which constitute an anti-Semitic act despite the absence of any inscription,” the European Jewish Press reported.
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