Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

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.

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.