Muslims Hasten To Right Toppled Jewish Headstones In Rochester

Members of the Muslim community in Rochester seemingly raced to the cemetery to right toppled Jewish headstones. Image by Twitter

By Daniel J. Solomon March 3, 2017

Soon after a Jewish cemetery was found vandalized in Rochester, New York in the third such incident in two weeks, local Muslims were on the scene helping clean up the damage, in another sign of an interfaith alliance that’s been forged between two communities both targeted by a spike in hate crimes.

Police have been investigating as a hate crime the toppling of almost two dozen headstones in the Waad Hakolel Cemetery, the third incident of its kind in the past two weeks, after Jewish burial grounds in Philadelphia and St. Louis were defaced.

Since the November election of President Trump, anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic bias incidents have been on the rise, and the two communities have sought to support one another. Following the desecration of the St. Louis cemetery, Muslim civil rights activist Linda Sarsour raised more than $100,000 to repair the damage. In Texas, a synagogue volunteered its facilities to a group of Muslims after vandals damaged their mosque.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at [email protected] or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

Daniel J. Solomon is the former Assistant to the Editor/News Writer at the Forward. Originally from Queens, he attended Harvard as an undergraduate, where he wrote his senior thesis on French-Jewish intellectual history. He is excited to have returned to New York after his time in Massachusetts. Daniel’s passions include folk music, cycling, and pointed argument.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO