National

Muslim group raises more than $40,000 to repair damages at Jewish cemetery

By Brian Murphy

bmurphy@mcclatchy.com

February 21, 2017 10:37 PM

Sally Amon and her son Max Amon of Olivette, Mo., react as they saw toppled gravestone of her grandmother Anna Ida Hutkin at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St. Louis on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. Vandals have damaged or tipped over 154 headstones at the Jewish cemetery in suburban St. Louis, leaving the region's Jewish community shaken and anxious.
Sally Amon and her son Max Amon of Olivette, Mo., react as they saw toppled gravestone of her grandmother Anna Ida Hutkin at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St. Louis on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. Vandals have damaged or tipped over 154 headstones at the Jewish cemetery in suburban St. Louis, leaving the region's Jewish community shaken and anxious. Robert Cohen St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP
Sally Amon and her son Max Amon of Olivette, Mo., react as they saw toppled gravestone of her grandmother Anna Ida Hutkin at Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City, a suburb of St. Louis on Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. Vandals have damaged or tipped over 154 headstones at the Jewish cemetery in suburban St. Louis, leaving the region's Jewish community shaken and anxious. Robert Cohen St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP

An online fundraising project created by two Muslim-Americans to repair the damaged Jewish cemetery in the St. Louis suburbs exceeded its $20,000 goal in three hours.

As of Tuesday night, the fundraiser had attracted more than $40,800 in donations from more than 1,450 donors.

More than 150 headstones were damaged or toppled at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in University City, Missouri, on Monday. Repair work began Tuesday.

No arrests have been made, according to The Associated Press.

Linda Sarsour of MPower Change and Tarek El-Messidi of Celebrate Mercy created the fundraiser “to help rebuild this sacred space where Jewish-American families have laid their loved ones to rest since the late 1800s.”

“Muslim Americans stand in solidarity with the Jewish-American community to condemn this horrific act of desecration,” according to the site.

The funds will go to the cemetery and any remaining funds “will be allocated to repair any other vandalized Jewish centers,” according to the fundraising site.

There have been 69 bomb threats at 54 Jewish community centers in 27 states and one Canadian providence since Jan. 9, according to The Jewish Community Center Association of North America. On Monday, there were threats called into 11 centers.

President Trump spoke about the contributions of African Americans and condemns recent attacks on Jewish community centers during his first appearance as president at Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washingto

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President Donald Trump denounced anti-Semitism on Tuesday, his first such comments after declining to make forceful comments to a specific question at a press conference.

“The anti-Semitic threats targeting our Jewish community and community centers are horrible, and are painful, and a very sad reminder of the work that still must be done to root out hate and prejudice and evil,” Trump said.

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