Volunteers unite at vandalized Jewish cemetery
Some volunteers raked leaves into bags, while others carried clipboards and began the process of mapping the hundreds of tombstones in the crowded cemetery, noting any damage to each. One man whose son will be commissioned as an Air Force officer in May became choked up as he uncovered the flat tombstone of a World War I veteran, which had been obscured by years of dirt and debris.
Another volunteer, Robert Weiss, 55, of Dover, Massachusetts, took a day off from work and drove more than five hours to Philadelphia to lend a hand.
“I just had to see this for myself, and participate,” said Weiss, adding he was “beside himself” when he saw the damage.
After each one-hour shift, the volunteers walked to a corner of the cemetery, where a rabbi offered a meditation and led them in song — a Jewish prayer for peace.
Sarah Samuels, a University of Pennsylvania student, said she was gratified by the response. “But this shouldn’t have to have happened in the first place,” she said.
TRENTON, N.J. — The latest in a wave of bomb threat hoaxes called in to more than 20 Jewish community centers and schools across the country on Monday again put administrators in the position of having to decide whether a threatening message on the other end of a phone line was enough to shred their routines and put people on edge.
For most, the answer was to evacuate until police arrived to search for anything suspicious and then give them the all-clear to return.
Schools and community centers highlight the need to keep the children and members safe. But some law enforcement experts question whether the evacuations are an overreaction, pointing to the lack of evidence of attackers alerting people to their plans ahead of time.
“Every time we evacuate or close the business, it reinforces the idea to these people that they can shut things down with a phone call,” said Steve Albrecht, a former police officer and threat assessment expert based in Colorado. “That’s how these people who make these types of threats get their thrill, and I want to stop that.”
Jewish leaders said they’re not sure whether the vandals were motivated by anti-Semitism or simple maliciousness. Judging by the path of the damage, it appears the vandals might have accessed the cemetery from an adjoining playground through a piece of damaged fence.
Bill Doran, the superintendent of another cemetery in Philadelphia, told The Philadelphia Inquirer he visited Mount Carmel on Feb. 21 and noticed the damage then but didn’t report it, assuming the managers were already aware. Police first learned of the damage on Sunday.