Heavy damage in Moldovan Cemetery Blamed on Loggers
5 April 2013 – Unlicensed loggers may be to blame for damage to a Jewish cemetery in the capital, Chisinau.
Unidentified individuals broke into Chisinau’s Metropolitan Jewish Cemetery and caused “serious damage” to graves.
Russia’s Jewish News Agency reported dozens of headstones and graves were destroyed in what appeared to be the work of unlicensed loggers who had felled dozens of healthy trees.
Falling timber apparently smashed some headstones. The paths are still blocked by debris and fallen branches.
Read the original article here.
Swastikas on the Gates of the Warsaw Jewish Cemetery
11 April 2013 – Swastikas were discovered on the gates of the Jewish cemetery in Warsaw. They were apparently spray painted after many people visited the site on Holocaust Remembrance Day to mark the 70th anniversary of the liquidation of the Warsaw ghetto, according to a preliminary police investigation, which said that no signs of anti-Semitism were seen at the time of the mass visits.
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Stars of David Ripped from Jewish Tombstones in Milan
By Ruth Ellen Gruber
15 April 2013 – More than a dozen tombstones at the Jewish section of Milan’s main cemetery were vandalized.
Vandals tore off Stars of David decorating some 13 tombstones.
Milan Mayor Giuliano Pisapia said he “forcefully condemned” the vandalism.
“For my part, I express solidarity to the families and to the entire Jewish community,” he said in a statement. “Every act of violence, every act of lack of respect, toward whatever religion or community, is a stain that must find the unanimous condemnation of the entire city.”
Read the original article here.
Russian Vandals Admit to Smashing Jewish Graves
By Cnaan Liphshiz
18 April 2013 (JTA) – Two suspects arrested for destroying dozens of Jewish tombstones in central Russia admitted to the crime but said the attack was not anti-Semitic.
Russian police arrested the men, aged 46 and 32, in connection with the attack discovered the previous day at a cemetery in Ulyanovsk, near the city of Kazan. Most of the 30 graves destroyed were from the Jewish part of the cemetery, the online edition of the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.
The report said the suspects admitted to smashing the tombstones but said the attack was not anti-Semitic. Rather, the report said, the men said they were drunk and broke the Jewish tombstones because they were closest to them.
Read the original article here.
Polish Cemetery Vandalized
By Katarzyna Markusz
28 April 2013 – Unknown vandals attacked a Jewish cemetery in the Polish town of Blonie, near Warsaw.
Tombstones in the cemetery were smashed to pieces around the same time as Warsaw commemorated the 70th anniversary of the start of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
The cemetery in Blonie was founded in the 19th century. In 1940, Jewish soldiers who fought in World War II were buried there. After the war, the cemetery fell into neglect. In 2011, employees of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews found and restored some 40 tombstones or parts of tombstones.
Local police are investigating the vandalism.
There is a cash bounty for information to help find the perpetrators.
Read the original article here.
Jewish Cemetery Unearthed During Construction Work in Turkey
1 May 2013 – Gravestones and bones from an ancient Turkish Jewish cemetery have been unearthed during the construction of an underground tunnel.
The remains in the Turkish city of Izmir were found more than 20 feet below ground, the Hurriyet Daily News reported.
According to Hurriyet, the gravestones were left in the ground and the bones were delivered to representatives of Izmir’s Jewish community.
The bones will be reburied in the Altındag Jewish Cemetery, which remains open to Jewish burials, Izmir Jewish community chairman Jak Kaya told Hurriyet.
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Jewish tombstone fragments discovered in Polish town near Treblinka
21 May 2013 – Pieces may be embedded in a concrete wall built at the Jewish cemetery in Sokolow
Fragments from dozens of Jewish tombstones were discovered during renovations in a Polish town near the former Nazi death camp Treblinka.
The fragments were found last week in the eastern town of Sokolow Podlaski as work began on a terrace leading to the shops located at a marketplace there.
The two Jewish cemeteries in the town were devastated during World War II.
In the 1930s, some 60 percent of Sokolow’s 10,000 inhabitants were Jewish. Most of the Jews perished in September 1942 at Treblinka.
Read the original article here.
Baby Steps To Restoring Memory of Kosovo Jews
By Liam Hoare
28 May 2013 – Reminder of Past: The Jewish cemetery in the Kosovo capital of Pristina is one of the few reminders of Jewish life in the predominantly ethnic Albanian town.
There is no longer a Jewish community in Pristina, the capital of the newly independent country of Kosovo, but the fledgling republic is seeking to preserve its Jewish heritage.
Read the original article here.
Matzevot From Wronki And A Collection Of Stone Monuments
27 May 2013 – The first stage of documentation works of discovered matzevos which were found in one of the nearby towns has come to an end. Seven hundred and forty headstones or their fragments have been photographed, and personal data of the deceased have been registered. This is the result of the work done by Ofra Reisenfeld and her students from the Section of Hebrew, Aramaic and Karaim Studies at Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań, as well as by Daniel Kwaśniewski and Piotro Pojasek, a local history expert from the Museum in Wronki.
Inmates from the penalty institution in Wronki helped in manual works. The project enjoys the patronage of Robert Doran, an assistant of the Mayor of Wronki Town and Municipality.
