For the second time in under a month, vandals desecrate Jewish cemetery in Ioannina, Greece

For the second time in under a month, vandals have desecrated the Jewish cemetery of Ioannina, Greece.

In a statement, the Jewish Community of Ioannina said: “It is a sad event in a city where the Jewish community left a mark, where it coexisted harmoniously for centuries and where a handful of its remaining members are a part of its present.”

In a separate statement on Friday, the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece (KIS) said: “Antisemitism targets even the dead. For the second time in less than a month a tomb was found vandalised at the Jewish cemetery of Ioannina. The vandals chose the period of the High Holidays of the Jewish faith for the manifestation of their antisemitic hatred with the hideous act of removing the tombstone of a grave. Shame!

“The state as well as the local authorities need to take all necessary measures for the safety of the Jewish Community and its sacred sites all over Greece, and particularly in Ioannina, where the Jewish cemetery has been the target of hatred attacks repeatedly in the past. Let the dead rest in peace!”

It was said that the grave had been smashed in “almost exactly the same way” as the grave in last month’s incident. The KIS said of last month’s vandalism: “We strongly condemn this shameful act of sacrilege which indicates that the hatred of the perpetrators leads to villainous manifestations of violence and fanaticism.”

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Image credit: The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece