Slovakia investigating recent vandalism at a Jewish cemetery
In response, the embassy of Slovakia assured the two that the police are investigating the crime.
By OMRI NAHMIASJewish cemetary in Sarajevo 370(photo credit: REUTERS)
Slovakia’s embassy in Washington sent a letter to the leaders of B’nai B’rith international on Monday, saying that the Slovak police began investigating the antisemitic incident last week in which 59 headstones were smashed in the Jewish cemetery of Námestovo, a town in northern Slovakia near the Polish border.B’nai B’rith International President Charles O. Kaufman and CEO Daniel S. Mariaschin sent a letter to the Slovak ambassador to the United States, Ivan Korčok, calling for the local authorities to investigate and find those responsible for the crime. “These vicious acts of vandalism come at a time of a global spike in antisemitic acts worldwide,” Kaufman and Mariaschin wrote. “Jewish communities depend on the active cooperation and support of national and local governments, together with law enforcement agencies, to protect the community against such incidents, and to vigorously pursue the perpetrators.”In response, the embassy of Slovakia assured the two that the police are investigating the crime. “You rightly underlined the need for national and local governments as well as law enforcement agencies to cooperate with the Jewish communities to protect them against such incidents, and to vigorously pursue the perpetrators,” the letter reads. “I cannot agree more. We surely have to join forces and step up efforts – in criminal justice and especially in education.”“I would like to inform you that the investigator of the Slovak Police Department has already launched the process of criminal prosecution for a criminal offense of defamation of the last resting place,” the embassy added. “I strongly believe that the authorities will be able to find offenders of this shameful act soon and punish them according to the law.”
