Vandals target Jewish cemetery in Philly

Police investigate ‘reprehensible’ toppling of 100 headstones

Police in Philadelphia are investigating what they call a targeted act of vandalism that toppled more than 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in the city, just a week after a similar incident occurred in Missouri.

Although authorities investigating both cases have not deemed them hate crimes, the episodes have sparked alarm among Jewish groups and public officials at a time when reports of anti-Semitic actions appear to be on the rise.

“For the second time in a week, a group of cowards vandalized a Jewish cemetery, desecrating the resting place of people who could not defend themselves,” Jonathan Greenblatt, chief executive of the AntiDefamation League, said in a statement late Sunday.

In Philadelphia, the headstones at Mount Carmel Cemetery were apparently knocked over sometime after sundown Saturday night, police said.

Precisely who is behind the incident remains unclear, as the Philadelphia police did not say they think the headstones were targeted because they are at a Jewish cemetery. But the police department decried a “reprehensible” act they said appeared aimed at a particular group of graves.

“We must allow the investigation to take its course before we can determine a specific motive or label as a particular type of crime,” the Philadelphia police said in a statement Monday morning. “This is an abominable crime, that appears to target these particular headstones.”

Compounding the anxiety, a wave of threats were reported at Jewish schools and centers nationwide Monday, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which has documented dozens of such threats recently. They similarly reported threats a week earlier, even as the community in the St. Louis area was still reeling after more than 150 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in suburban University City, Mo., were toppled or damaged.

The Anne Frank Center for Mutual Respect, a nonprofit organization targeting discrimination, released a statement saying it is “sickened, sickened, sickened” by the incident, and calling on President Donald Trump to explain how his administration plans to target episodes of bias and hate against Jewish and Muslim people.

Following the episode in Missouri, Trump relented in the face of mounting criticism and offered his first public condemnation of the anti-Semitic incidents that have unfolded since he was elected.

Jewish centers and schools across the nation coped with another wave of bomb threats Monday as officials in Philadelphia made plans to repair and restore hundreds of vandalized headstones at a Jewish cemetery.

Jewish Community Centers and day schools in at least a dozen states also received threats, according to the JCC Association of North America. No bombs were found. All 21 buildings — 13 community centers and eight schools — were cleared by Monday afternoon and had resumed normal operations, the association said.

It was the fifth round of bomb threats against Jewish institutions since January, prompting exasperation among Jewish leaders as well as calls for an aggressive federal response.