Politics & Government

Headstones At Jewish Cemetery In Missouri Vandalized

Photos show several of the headstones at the cemetery were left facing down.

UNIVERSITY CITY, MO — Hundreds of headstones at a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis were vandalized and left facing down over the weekend, and the cemetery is working to catalog the damage and notify families of those affected.

No arrests have been made, and police, asked whether the incident was being investigated as a hate crime, said they were keeping all options open, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Police were notified about the vandalism Monday morning, and investigators are working to look at surveillance videos.

The Chesed Shel Emeth Society said it won't be able to read the names on many headstones and see if there is damage until the stones are lifted. On its Facebook page, the cemetery said it would catalog the stones hit and publish the names on Facebook by Wednesday morning.

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As the vandalism at the cemetery was reported, Jewish Community Centers across the country were once again hit with a wave of bomb threats, marking the fourth time this year that JCCs in the country were targeted. The JCC said in a statement that it is in regular communication with the FBI regarding the threats.

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted about the two incidents, saying it was "long overdue for our leaders to lead."

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President Donald Trump had not addressed the rise of anti-Semitism or other bias incidents until Tuesday, when he said anti-Semitism is "horrible" and "painful." Last week, Trump responded to a reporter's question about the rising anti-Semitism by bragging about his Electoral College victory. At a press conference the next day, Trump once again avoided a question about how the government planned to address the rise in anti-Semitism.


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The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect did not give Trump much credit for his comments. Executive director Steven Goldstein issued a strongly worded statement calling his words a "Band-Aid on the cancer of Antisemitism that has infected his own Administration."

Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump, tweeted about the threats on Monday, saying the country must protect houses of worship and religious centers. Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner practice Judaism.

Groups like the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which track hate crimes and bias incidents, have reported an uptick in bias incidents since the November election.

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