Massachusetts Cops Continue Search for Antisemitic Vandals Behind Jewish Cemetery Desecration
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by Algemeiner Staff
A desecrated gravestone in the Hebrew Cemetery in Fall River, Ma. Photo: Screenshot.
Police in Massachusetts were continuing the search on Wednesday for the culprits behind the shocking desecration of a Jewish cemetery last weekend.
At least 30 gravestones at the Hebrew Cemetery in Fall River, Ma., were daubed with viciously antisemitic graffiti, including a Nazi swastika, the slogans “Heil Hitler” and “Hitler was right,” and the words “Expel the Jew.”
Local media reported that above the menorah carved into one gravestone was the phrase, “Oy vey! This is MAGA country,” an apparent reference to President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
The local police department became aware of the graffiti on Sunday when a cemetery maintenance worker reported it, police Sgt. J.T. Hoar said on Tuesday.
No arrests have been made yet and an investigation is ongoing.
Antisemitic incidents have risen nationwide over the last two years, with Massachusetts registering a 42 percent increase in anti-Jewish outrages in 2017, according to the Anti-Defamation League’s last available audit. Several of these incidents involved neo-Nazi graffiti.
“In 2017, 79 cities and towns in Massachusetts reported anti-Semitic incidents, and notably, nearly half (37) of the impacted communities reported more than one incident to ADL,” the Jewish civil rights group noted in an analysis of the figures.
