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Shock: more than 170 Jewish gravesites vandalized at cemetery in Missouri—UPDATED

jewish-cemetery-gravestones-missouri

Deacon Greg Kandra - published on 02/21/17

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Details: 

The gravesites of more than 170 Jews were vandalized at a cemetery in University City, Mo., sometime over the weekend. And on Monday, the Anti-Defamation League reported a wave of bomb threats directed against Jewish Community Centers in multiple states, the fourth series of such threats since the beginning of the year, it said, a development that elicited comments from a White House spokesman and Ivanka Trump, neither of which used the phrase “anti-Semitism” or mentioned Jews. There were no words at all from President Donald Trump himself as of early morning Tuesday. That prompted the head of the Anti-Defamation League, to praise Ivanka Trump and call on the president to follow her lead. “Glad to see this,” he tweeted of Ivanka Trump’s comment. “All Jews need to urge” the president to step forward & share a plan. His words carry weight. His actions will speak even louder.” …The perpetrators of the cemetery vandalism and their motives were not yet established. Police in University City, an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, were just launching an investigation, reviewing video surveillance at the cemetery, operated on a not-for-profit basis by The Chesed Shel Emeth Society and calling on anyone with information to come forward. Because of the Sabbath, the cemetery does not operate on Saturday, Anita Feigenbaum, director of the Chesed Shel Emeth Society told The Washington Post in a phone interview. A groundskeeper arrived Monday morning to find gravestones overturned across a wide section of the cemetery, the oldest section as it happens, bearing the remains of Jews who died between the late 1800s and the mid-20th century. She called it a “horrific act of cowardice,” beyond anything the cemetery had experienced in the past.

Read on. 

UPDATE:  The president spoke out about this this morning. Details:

President Trump on Tuesday said anti-Semitism is “horrible,” and “painful,” speaking out for the first time about a rising tide of incidents and threats targeting Jewish people and institutions since he was inaugurated.

During a visit to the National Museum of African American History and Culture, Mr. Trump made the comments after drawing criticism in recent days for failing to condemn anti-Jewish threats and actions.

“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible, and are painful, and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” he said.

Photo: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

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