60 headstones toppled at Connecticut Jewish cemetery

Some 60 headstones were toppled in a Jewish cemetery in Hartford, Connecticut.

The damage at the Ateres Knesseth Israel Cemetery was discovered on Friday, when a relative of someone buried there visited the grave site.

The woman who made the discovery told police that when she visited the cemetery on Monday, five days earlier, she had not seen any such damage, according to reports.

Most of the 60 gravestones can reportedly be reset on their bases, but at least two were shattered. The cost to repair the damage is estimated at up to $10,000.

Hartford Police tells the daily newspaper The Hartford Courant that there is no evidence that the vandalism is a hate crime since no anti-Semitic graffiti was found at the scene. There are no security cameras in place at the cemetery.

“It appears to be a random desecration, a cowardly act of vandalism,” Howard Sovronsky, head of the Greater Hartford Jewish Federation, also tells the Courant.

Hartford PD say 60 gravestones were toppled at Ateres Knesseth Israel Cemetery on FD Oates/Garden St. No indication of hate crime. #wfsb pic.twitter.com/0MFI6h5Y9Z

— Matthew Campbell (@mgmcampbell) July 21, 2017

— JTA