Jewish gravestones vandalized with swastikas in Massachusetts

Cemetery in Fall River also defaced with anti-Semitic slogans including ‘Hitler was right’ and ‘Oy vey, this is MAGA Country’

By JTA 19 March 2019, 4:52 pm Edit

Entrance to Hebrew Cemetery on McMahon Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. (Google Screenshot)

Swastikas and anti-Semitic epithets were drawn on at least 30 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in southern Massachusetts, reports said Tuesday.

The vandalism at the Hebrew Cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts, occurred over the weekend, police told local media.

Among the graffiti written in black marker were “Heil Hitler,” “Hitler was right,” “expel the Jew,” and “Oy vey, this is MAGA Country.”

MAGA, or Make America Great Again, is a slogan from US President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Swastikas were scrawled on some 10 headstones, according to local newspaper The Herald News.

File photo: Headstones toppled and damaged by vandals lie on the ground at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Philadelphia. (AP /Jacqueline Larma)

The graffiti was noticed on Sunday after police officers visited the cemetery, responding to a report that a suspicious vehicle had been parked there for two days, the Providence Journal reported. The car was gone when police arrived at the cemetery on Sunday afternoon.

Police in Fall River, near Providence, Rhode Island, are investigating the incident.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.