'Vandalized' Jewish Cemetery Actually Just Old And Falling Apart, NYPD Detectives Say

MAPLETON, BROOKLYN — Over the weekend, local leaders in South Brooklyn called on the NYPD to hunt down the anti-Semitic "cowards" they believed had overturned 40 headstones at Washington Cemetery, one of the world's largest Jewish resting grounds, located just south of the Kensington neighborhood.

By Monday, police had responded — although perhaps not in the way community leaders had expected.

"It was not a crime," an NYPD spokesperson told Patch.

"We spoke to a lot of people at that location, and those stones had been down for quite some time," NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce said at a press conference Monday. "There was significant soil erosion there that created that situation, and there's also grass growing over [the tombstones]."

"There's no doubt there is a spike in anti-Semitic incidents across not only the city but also the country — so we took a hard look at it," Boyce said. "But this appears to be something that was going on over time."

New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (pictured above, right), who represents the largely Jewish neighborhoods surrounding the cemetery, had said Sunday, when the damage was reported: “It’s heartbreaking — not just to the loved ones of those who are buried here, but to all of us. Is there anything more cowardly than desecrating a cemetery in the middle of the night?"

The NYPD got a 911 call about the tombstones around 8:45 p.m. Saturday night, according to the department. Detectives with the Hate Crimes Task Force then conducted a "comprehensive" investigation, police said, and "interviewed numerous people."

A representative for Hikind's office said Monday that he had not yet signed off on the NYPD's findings. "He's still researching it," she said.

UDPATE: Reached by phone in Albany late Monday afternoon, the assemblyman himself told Patch he still suspected foul play.

"Nobody's certain what happened," Hikind said. "Even the cemetery has no record of when these tombstones went down. It's crazy."

"The bottom line is that these tombstones that we're talking about are only in this one area — only one single section has this situation I'm describing," Hikind said. "I was there. I looked at each and every one of them. And I know the difference between something that's crumbling and fell down" and something that was vandalized.

The assemblyman said the person who originally called police was someone from the local Jewish community who was walking by the cemetery Saturday night on his way to synagogue.

"This was someone who always walks in that direction, and who noticed something different than that person had seen before," Hikind said. "After the Sabbath, he got in touch with the Shomrim [the local, unofficial Orthodox Jewish police force] and with us. And that's when this whole thing began."

Even if the NYPD investigation goes nowhere, though, Hikind said he's at least grateful that the state of disorder at South Brooklyn's historic Jewish cemetery has been brought to light.

"It's just insane," he said. "I'm happy we've highlighted what's going on."

This story has been updated.

Photos courtesy of Dov Hikind's Office