AS JEWISH CEMETERY IN SLOVAKIA IS DEFACED AGAIN, EUROPEAN JEWISH ASSOCIATION URGES SLOVAK GOVERNMENT TO CLAMP DOWN HARD ON REPULSIVE PERPETRATORS AND INCREASE HOLOCAUST EDUCATION PROVISION
Immediate focus after bringing prosecutions against perpetrators must be on education says EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin.
(Brussels 17 March 2025) A Jewish Cemetery in Humenne, Slovakia was desecrated with the daubing of Swastikas on headstones. This is the second time that the Cemetery was attacked, and follows a pattern of attacks over the last years on Jewish cemetaries.
The cemetery stands as memorial monument to a lost community, wiped out in the Holocaust.
The Brussels based European Jewish Association represents hundreds of Jewish Communities across Europe. Its Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin has written to the Slovak Minister of Education, Mr Tomas Drucker urging his department to increase Holocaust education in all schools and for his government clamp down hard and prosecute the perpetrators.
In a statement today, Rabbi Margolin said,
“The desecration of Jewish graves is heinous, repulsive and a betrayal of memory. These stones stand as a testament to a community that vanished after humanity’s lowest point: the Holocaust
“I have written to the Slovakian Education Minister to increase Holocaust education in Slovakia. When graveyards are habitually desecrated it points to a sickness in society that needs to be addressed.
“The best cure, other than the perpetrators feeling the full weight of justice, is through education, in particular of learning the lessons of the Holocaust and where mindless hatred can lead a society. The government must clamp down hard.”