(JTA) — Jewish gravestones were vandalized at a veterans’ cemetery in central Florida.
At least 13 tombstones decorated with a Star of David — gravesites of Jewish veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam — were toppled or dug out of the ground over the weekend at the Florida National Cemetery in Bushnell, the Orlando Sentinel reported. Other graves in the two cemetery sections affected by the vandalism were untouched.
The vandalism is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. It is punishable under Florida’s state hate crimes laws and, because it is a national cemetery, under federal hate crime statutes.
