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Police Say Dozens of Headstones Damaged at Philadelphia Jewish Cemetery


FILE - Local and national media report on more than 170 toppled Jewish headstones after a weekend vandalism attack on Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, Feb. 21, 2017.
FILE - Local and national media report on more than 170 toppled Jewish headstones after a weekend vandalism attack on Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St Louis, Missouri, Feb. 21, 2017.

Police say scores of headstones have been vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia.

A police spokeswoman said preliminary estimates are that 75 to 100 graves were damaged at Mount Carmel Cemetery in the Wissinoming section of the city.

WPVI-TV reported that a man who came to visit his father's grave Sunday morning discovered headstones toppled. Police said a vandalism report came in just after 9:30 a.m. Sunday.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia lists Mount Carmel as a Jewish cemetery in northeastern Philadelphia.

The damage comes less than a week after a Jewish cemetery in suburban St. Louis reported more than 150 headstones vandalized, many of them tipped over.

Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon called the damage reported in Philadelphia "shocking and a source of worry."

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