Romanian authorities estimate 200 graves in Bucharest’s largest Jewish cemetery have been vandalized.
Police responded quickly to the scene on Thursday and have launched an investigation that Romania’s Ministry of Justice has promised will be thorough.
Romania’s Jewish population numbers about 6,000, according to the BBC.
More than 40,000 Jews are buried in the south Bucharest graveyard, including Holocaust victims, though none of the victims’ headstones was defaced.
After the fall of communism in 1989, there was an influx of anti-Semitic articles printed in nationalist newspapers. After former President Ion Iliescu recognized the Holocaust, the anti-Semitic writings largely ebbed.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
