Five headstones toppled at Jewish Brooklyn cemetery in apparent hate crime

A wave of anti-Semitic vandalism at burial sites continued this weekend with five overturned headstones discovered late Saturday at a predominantly Jewish cemetery in Brooklyn.

The NYPD’s hate-crime task force is investigating if the toppling of the gravestones at the historic Washington Cemetery was intentional.

“In New York now and in the United States we had a rash of anti-Semitism — over 100 acts of anti-Semitism — and I’m sad to say also in my state, the state of New York,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in comments released by his office.”It is disgusting, it is reprehensible, it violates every tenet of the New York State tradition.”

In the past two weeks, vandalism at Jewish cemeteries was reported in Rochester, where more than a dozen headstoneswereknocked down, in Philadelphia, where 100 were counted vandalized, and St. Louis, where about 170 headstones were counted vandalized.

Various Muslim groups have voiced support for the Jewish community and condemned the violence and hate that has erupted this year.

“The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA stands in solidarity with Jewish Americans…We call on all Americans to stand united against this hatred and extremism,” the organization’s vice president Nasim Rehmatullah said in a March 2 statement following the Rochester incident.

On Friday, a former journalist in St. Louis was charged with making at least eight bomb threats to Jewish Community Centers across several cities including New York City, San Diego, Farmington Hills, Mich., and St. Louis.

Since the beginning of 2017, there have been approximately 122 bomb threats made to Jewish organizations across three dozen states, along with many reports of anti-Semitic graffiti, verbal abuse and assaults in New York and across the country.