November 18, 2005
The Russian city of St. Petersburg has agreed to compensate the Jewish community for the desecration of a Jewish cemetery. The community, along with families of those whose graves were vandalized, will now compile a list of affected gravesites in order to receive the funds. A recent string of attacks damaged or destroyed nearly 150 gravestones at St. Petersburg’s main Jewish cemetery. Previously, the Jewish community blamed the cemetery’s recurrent security breaches and administration woes on the city’s lack of initiative, but following the recent desecrations entered into a dialog with city officials. Like many other Jewish and non-Jewish cemeteries in Russia, the cemetery in St. Petersburg is owned by the municipality. Until an agreement is reached on better security at the cemetery, the Jewish community decided to hire security personnel at its own expense.
