Jan 7, 2008 9:00 pm US/Eastern
Hundreds Of Gravestones Toppled At Jewish Cemetery
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (CBS) ―
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Vandals toppled hundreds of headstones in a Jewish cemetery in New Brunswick, N.J.
CBS
Police are investigating the desecration of hundreds of graves at a Jewish cemetery in New Brunswick.
Menachem Simcha's name means "happy occasion" in Hebrew, but his daughter was anything but happy when she saw what vandals did to the gravestone of her father -- a Holocaust survivor -- and hundreds of other gravestones at Poile Zedek Cemetery.
"It's horrible, it's just horrible. It looks worse than any tornado that came through. I've never seen devastation from a natural cause. But this is unbelievable. I don't know how it was done," said Simcha's daughter, Olga Hamilton.
Debi Verpent wept as she pointed out her father's toppled gravestone.
New Brunswick police believe that the damage was done in two waves, the first on Thursday morning and the second on Sunday.
"It's disgusting how anybody could do something like this. It's unbelievable. He's probably rolling over in his grave," said Verpent.
Rabbis initially believed that these were acts of juvenile vandalism, but when they saw the scope of the desecration, they say it is actually something much worse.
"It was premeditated, and something that is either hate or somebody who doesn't understand life," said Rabbi Abraham Mykoff of the Poile Zedek Congregation.
Police say they are exploring several leads that might help them find the vandals. They're looking for surveillance tapes that might have captured pictures of the vandals.
Stay with wcbstv.com and CBS 2 for the latest in this developing story.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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