Gravestones Destroyed - 05.24.2004

Coverage:

Jerusalem Post

JTA

ITAR-TASS

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Jerusalem Post 

50 Jewish gravestones vandalized in Kiev

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- More than 50 Jewish gravestones at a cemetery in the Ukrainian capital were vandalized over the weekend in what the local Jewish community described Monday as an organized anti-Semitic action. 

The plaques were destroyed early Sunday at a cemetery in a Kiev residential neighborhood, said Moshe-Reuven Asman, the chief rabbi of Kiev and the Kiev region. 

"Headstones were broken, heavy old stones were thrown about _ all that testifies to the fact that the crime was committed by a large group," he said. "It was an awful picture." 

Eduard Doks, spokesman for the Sokhnut Jewish community in Kiev, also described it an anti-Semitic act. 

Interior Ministry spokesman Viktor Korchinsky, however, denied any acts of vandalism, saying the graves were destroyed "all by themselves, because they were too old." 

In 2002, the central synagogue in Kiev was attacked and dozens of Jewish gravestones were vandalized. Jewish leaders were angered by the Ukrainian government's lack of an official statement condemning the actions.

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Gravestones trashed in Kiev
 
(JTA) - Some 50 gravestones were vandalized in a Jewish cemetery in Kiev. 

Jewish leaders in the Ukrainian capital called the incident, which took place over the weekend, an anti-Semitic act. But a government spokesman said the stones fell apart because of old age. 

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More than 50 Jewish tombs were destroyed, headstones broken at the cemetery in Kiev 

KIEV (Itar-Tass) – Practically all Jewish graves were vandalized at the Korenevskoye cemetery on Sunday. “More than 50 Jewish tombs were destroyed, headstones broken and the old stones thrown about, which shows that a large group of people were involved in the crime,” Chief Rabbi Moshe-Reuven Asman of Kiev and Kiev region said on Monday. 

Agents of Kiev’s Podol district police headquarters are working to identify the participants in the pogrom.

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