As tensions between Israel and Iran intensify and antisemitic incidents spike worldwide, vandals defaced more than 50 Jewish gravestones with swastikas and Nazi symbols in Chisinau, Moldova — reviving painful echoes of the country’s violent past and underscoring the global reach of anti-Jewish hatred.
The attack, which occurred over the weekend, is being investigated by Moldovan authorities as a hate crime.
Forensic investigators and prosecutors have sealed off the historic cemetery and opened a criminal case on charges of desecration and incitement to racial hatred. Officials have not yet released further details.
This is not the first time the site has been targeted. In a 2020 vandalism incident, 42 gravestones were damaged and 30 more were daubed with paint. But this latest incident lands differently — striking a deeper nerve as Jewish communities across the globe report record levels of harassment, intimidation, and violence.
“The direct conflict between Israel and Iran is fueling global waves of hatred and antisemitism. Unfortunately, Moldova is not immune to this trend,” said Moldova’s Chief Rabbi Pinchas Zaltzman. “When Jewish cemeteries are defaced with Nazi symbols, we are reminded that the hate we thought we buried still walks among us.”
The desecration is especially painful in Chisinau — formerly known as Kishinev — where one of the most brutal pogroms of the 20th century took place. In 1903, 49 Jews were murdered, 600 injured, and hundreds of homes and businesses destroyed in an attack that shocked the world and became a watershed moment in modern Jewish history.
Today, Moldova’s Jewish population has dwindled to around 5,000, down from over 200,000 a century ago. But the memory of past violence looms large — and the present threats are becoming harder to ignore.
In addition to the cemetery vandalism, Moldova’s Jewish leaders are raising concerns about a recently published school history textbook that allegedly downplays or omits the country’s role in the Holocaust. They warn that Holocaust distortion and the failure to confront uncomfortable truths are enabling a wider culture of antisemitic denial and revisionism.
“What we’re seeing — desecration of Jewish graves, distortion of Holocaust history — is not only an attack on Jews, but an assault on the conscience of any civilized society,” Rabbi Zaltzman stated.