St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

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Broomstick
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St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Broomstick »

The Chesed Shel Emeth cemetery in University City (a close suburb of St. Louis) was vandalized this weekend, with around 200 headstones knocked over.

This is where my paternal grandparents, uncle, great-grandparents, great-aunts, great-uncles, and a few cousins are buried.

The headstone shown in one of the videos in the linked article bears one of my family's surnames although at this point we don't know if it's one of our relatives or someone with the same surname. It is not my grandmother's grave, or my uncle's, because I know what their headstones look like and it's not theirs, but beyond that I can't be sure.

People basically shitting on other people and their beliefs/customs/loved ones' remains always bothers me, but this hit especially hard since so many of the family in the first generations past immigration to the US are buried there. These are my relatives, my people, my family.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by FSTargetDrone »

Some good news:
Muslim-led fundraiser to repair Jewish cemetery after vandalism surpasses goal

BY PAULINA FIROZI - 02/21/17 10:03 PM EST

A Muslim-led fundraiser to repair anti-Semitic vandalism at a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis blew past its initial fundraising goal on Tuesday.

The fundraiser, titled “Muslims Unite to Repair Jewish Cemetery,” had raised more than $40,000 from more than 1,400 donors as of around 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, pushing well past its $20,000 fundraising goal.

An update on the campaign’s website via Launch Good says the fundraising goal was reached in just three hours.

Vandals destroyed nearly 100 headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in St. Louis on Monday. The incident comes as a growing number of Jewish community centers across the country received a wave of bomb threats — 11 centers received threats on Monday alone, the JCC Association of North America reported.

The campaign was launched by Linda Sarsour and Tarek El-Messidi, according to the fundraising page.

"On the heels of bomb threats and hate crimes against dozens of Jewish community [centers] across the United States, a historical Jewish cemetery was vandalized this past weekend when over 100 headstones were damaged,” they wrote.

"Muslim Americans stand in solidarity with the Jewish-American community to condemn this horrific act of desecration against the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery. We also extend our deepest condolences to all those who have been affected and to the Jewish community at large.”

The fundraiser will continue, and any money raised beyond the goal for the St. Louis cemetery will be used to support other vandalized Jewish community centers across the country.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Sidewinder »

Vandalizing graves is beyond reprehensible. It's good to see American Muslims are expressing solidarity with the Jews.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Flagg »

I'm honestly curious as to whether these anti-Jew and anti-Muslim hate crimes have actually increased since Trump was inaugurated or if the coverage of them has.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

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Flagg wrote:I'm honestly curious as to whether these anti-Jew and anti-Muslim hate crimes have actually increased since Trump was inaugurated or if the coverage of them has.
It could be both. I recall reading that the ADL has reported an increase in this sort of activity, and coverage could be going up too.

So the US is getting worse, but people are now a little more aware of it.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Flagg »

Gandalf wrote:
Flagg wrote:I'm honestly curious as to whether these anti-Jew and anti-Muslim hate crimes have actually increased since Trump was inaugurated or if the coverage of them has.
It could be both. I recall reading that the ADL has reported an increase in this sort of activity, and coverage could be going up too.

So the US is getting worse, but people are now a little more aware of it.
True, it could be that the coverage has increased due to more of these events occurring. I really wish these young Republicans neo-Nazis would go back to the societal septic tanks they emerged from.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by applejack »

Don't know if I should bother making a new thread for this, but another Jewish cemetery got vandalized in Philadelphia a couple days ago.

NYT
100 Headstones Toppled at a Jewish Cemetery in Philadelphia
By NIRAJ CHOKSHIFEB. 26, 2017

The police in Philadelphia found about 100 toppled headstones at a Jewish cemetery on Sunday, less than one week after a similar discovery was made in Missouri.

Responding to a report of vandalism at the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery in northeastern Philadelphia, the police said a man told them that three headstones belonging to his relatives had been knocked over and damaged.

Officers said they counted about 100 damaged headstones, which were most likely toppled sometime Saturday night. They did not say if they had identified suspects or a motive.

The episode drew almost immediate comparison to a similar discovery last Monday in University City, Mo., where more than 150 headstones were toppled at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery. Also on Monday, 11 bomb scares were called into Jewish community centers nationwide, the fourth wave of such threats this year. A community center in Philadelphia was among those targeted in the first round.

State and local officials denounced the destruction at the Mount Carmel Jewish Cemetery, describing it as an act of vandalism.

“We are doing all we can to find the perpetrators who desecrated this final resting place, and they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Mayor Jim Kenney said in a statement. “Hate is not permissible in Philadelphia.”

Gov. Tom Wolf, on Twitter, described the damage as a “cowardly, disturbing” act of vandalism. Senator Bob Casey called it “despicable.”

President Trump issued on Tuesday his first condemnation of the mounting threats to Jewish people and institutions, after weeks of complaints from Jewish leaders that he had been unwilling to forcefully denounce such acts.

After the discovery on Sunday in Philadelphia, three groups offered a combined $13,000 for information leading to the arrests of those responsible, the police said.

It will cost at least $450 to $500 to repair each headstone, said Naomi Adler, the chief executive of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, which is collecting online donations for the repairs and cleanup.

“It’s horrific; it’s a desecration of a sacred Jewish space,” she said.

The cemetery’s caretaker could not be reached for comment, but Ms. Adler said the caretaker was working with the police to assist in the investigation and assess the damage. The police have also vowed to step up patrols of local Jewish institutions, Ms. Adler said.

There are about 220,000 members of the Jewish community in the Philadelphia area, she said.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Flagg »

It's not "vandalism" it's terrorism.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

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Flagg wrote:True, it could be that the coverage has increased due to more of these events occurring. I really wish these young Republicans neo-Nazis would go back to the societal septic tanks they emerged from.
You and I both know that they're not going anywhere. They'll go from "Trump is doing some good things" to "I'm more of a Romney/Rice/Gingrich/other Republican and thus bear no responsibility for this."

I'm waiting for the South Park episode where Stan and Kyle explain to the audience that even though it's wrong to smash graves, people also need to understand that some people just want a pure homeland.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Highlord Laan »

Personally, I think that anyone caught desecrating graves, or is found to have done so, should be punished by being forced to take a sledgehammer to the headstones of their own ancestors and family members. On streaming youtube video.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

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Highlord Laan wrote:Personally, I think that anyone caught desecrating graves, or is found to have done so, should be punished by being forced to take a sledgehammer to the headstones of their own ancestors and family members. On streaming youtube video.
I understand the reaction and reasoning behind it, but this would be a punishment for the criminal's family and relatives as well, since it is their ancestor's or family member's headstone as well. As a punishment, it is useless and simply spreads misery.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

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Highlord Laan wrote:Personally, I think that anyone caught desecrating graves, or is found to have done so, should be punished by being forced to take a sledgehammer to the headstones of their own ancestors and family members. On streaming youtube video.
Yeah, while this is disgusting thats quite the overreaction. You don't punish someone by punishing the rest of their family for their incredibly fucked up actions. Just because Cletus Cowfucker smashed some headstones because he thinks George Soros is making people vote for Hillary Clinton with fluoride water and pizza that makes people become pedophiles doesn't mean the rest of the Cowfucker family should have the graves of the Cowfucker family destroyed. His daddy Cletus Sr didn't smash those headstones, his sister Cletette didn't, why should their gravestones or the gravestones of people they loved be destroyed?

One of the reasons destroying gravestones like these pieces of shit did has such an impact is because they hurt far more then the person buried. Each headstone has dozens or even hundreds of people connected (nearly each, I'm sure there was a few bastards or people with no family), people that are wounded greatly by this. Its an unforgivable crime but one that should not be made worse by repeating the heinous actions in some gung-ho tough on crime bullshit.

The people who did this need punished severely, personally I think they need to spend a few years in jail re-carving all the headstones they destroyed, but the punishment should only fall on them.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Lord Revan »

Collective punishments rarely if ever work and that's what forcing the people caught to mash the graves of their ancestors, I think a more fitting punishment would to have them craft headstones for jewish cemetries until they had made as many high quality headstones as there orginally vandalized, after all it's nearly impossible to say who mashed which headstone so here it's safe to assume the whole group is to blame for all Stones, I wouldn't have them carve the replacements per say as that could extend the suffering of the victims (if the perps deside to be unco-operative) but have carve random headstones until such time that certain limit is reached that way if the perps try to screw up the task or refuse to do it they only hurt themselves as limit stays there until reached and they can't even pat themselves in the back for extending the suffering of their victims as the headstones of the victims would be replaced regardless of their actions.
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by Broomstick »

Tiriol wrote:
Highlord Laan wrote:Personally, I think that anyone caught desecrating graves, or is found to have done so, should be punished by being forced to take a sledgehammer to the headstones of their own ancestors and family members. On streaming youtube video.
I understand the reaction and reasoning behind it, but this would be a punishment for the criminal's family and relatives as well, since it is their ancestor's or family member's headstone as well. As a punishment, it is useless and simply spreads misery.
Not to mention that not everyone's family practices western-style burial with ostentatious grave markers. Would also be a problem if one of the said ancestors were in a place such as the US's Arlington, where such destruction of a grave marker would prompt some pretty ugly visceral reactions in people, even if it was meted out as punishment.

The whole eye-for-an-eye thing really doesn't work out too well in general, and in this case harms others beyond the one being punished.

How about being forced to dig graves by hand, with just a shovel, to regulation depths?
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Re: St. Louis Jewish Cemetery Vandalized

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Lord Revan wrote:Collective punishments rarely if ever work and that's what forcing the people caught to mash the graves of their ancestors, I think a more fitting punishment would to have them craft headstones for jewish cemetries until they had made as many high quality headstones as there orginally vandalized, after all it's nearly impossible to say who mashed which headstone so here it's safe to assume the whole group is to blame for all Stones, I wouldn't have them carve the replacements per say as that could extend the suffering of the victims (if the perps deside to be unco-operative) but have carve random headstones until such time that certain limit is reached that way if the perps try to screw up the task or refuse to do it they only hurt themselves as limit stays there until reached and they can't even pat themselves in the back for extending the suffering of their victims as the headstones of the victims would be replaced regardless of their actions.
While I don't know how a lot of Jewish families would feel about having headstones potentially crafted by Neo-Nazis, even as punishment, I am generally in favour of sentencing which requires the offender to work to repair the damage they did (as much as possible). It has obvious practical benefits, a nice symmetry, and seems like a better way of paying for one's crimes than punishment, which only adds damage in an attempt to achieve balance, rather than rectifying the damage done.
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