Jewish Cemetery Vandalized in St. Louis

The Fellowship  |  February 21, 2017

As anti-Semitism continues to rise – not only in the Middle East and Europe, but in the U.S., as well – the latest attack is being investigated in St. Louis. The Times of Israel reports that over 170 tombstones in a Jewish cemetery were damaged in what the cemetery’s director calls a “horrific act of cowardice”:

More than 170 gravestones were damaged in a Jewish cemetery near St. Louis which has served the community for more than 100 years.

Vandals pushed over headstones on the Jewish graves on Sunday in the suburb of University City, Missouri.

“Numerous plots were damaged and [headstones were] pushed over,” Lt. Fredrick Lemons of the University City Police Department told The Huffington Post.

When asked whether he considered the attack to be a hate crime, Lemons replied that “Right now, everything is under investigation. We’re looking into all possible leads.” He added that police were reviewing video surveillance footage

Police said that it was likely there was more than one perpetrator, Fox2News reported.

Some of the graves, in the oldest section of the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery, date back to the late 1800s. The cemetery holds an estimated 20,000 graves.

Anita Feigenbaum, director of the burial society, told the Washington Post that it was a “horrific act of cowardice,” and she described it as worse than any previous anti-Semitic attacks.