April 18, 2013

(JTA) — Russian police have arrested two men on suspicion that they destroyed dozens of Jewish tombstones in central Russia.

The suspects, 46 and 32, were arrested on Tuesday in connection with an attack discovered the previous day at a cemetery in Ulyanovsk near the city of Kazan. Most of the 30 graves destroyed were from the Jewish part of the cemetery, the online edition of the Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

The report said the suspects admitted to smashing the tombstones but said the attack was not anti-Semitic. Rather, the men were drunk and broke the Jewish tombstones because they were closest to them, the report said.

In February, unidentified individuals smashed a memorial monument for Holocaust victims in Ulyanovsk — a menorah which was inaugurated in 2011 during an international festival of Jewish culture. The culprits tried but failed to enter the adjacent Jewish community center, according to a report by the Interfax news agency. 

Need to know? Click here to sign up for JTA’s free e-newsletters.

Click to write a letter to the editor.

This article was made possible by the support of readers like you. Donate to JTA now.