French Jews in a small community about 215 miles east of Paris were outraged this past week to discover their centuries-old Jewish cemetery was vandalized by one or more anti-Semites.
The president of CRIF, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions, said French Jews are “saddened” and “angered” in the wake of the attack in which 80 percent of the 50 graves were desecrated, their headstones knocked over and smashed.
The damage was noticed when a local went last Thursday to visit the grave of an ancestor at the 18th century Jewish cemetery in Waldwisse, just outside the town of Thionville.
A formal complaint was submitted to local law enforcement, and a probe was launched. The cemetery was also vandalized in 2014, but the three perpetrators who were found guilty of that crime were never punished; media reports indicated they received suspended sentences from the local court.