2020 / Antisemitic hate crime has always been a "canary in a coal mine," signaling a shift in attitudes in difficult economic times and periods of social unrest. Antisemitism is on the rise once again, especially in Europe—but here in the United States the number of recorded antisemitic incidents in 2019 was the highest it has been in forty years. Of particular note is a rise in vandalism in Jewish cemeteries around the world, with toppled, broken, and defaced stones numbering in the dozens in some incidents.

When I visited Krakow, I was struck by the sight of a wall around the Remah Cemetery (also called the Old Jewish Cemetery): it was a mosaic of fragments, many thousands of them. When the Germans invaded Krakow, they had destroyed many of the Jewish headstones and sold them as paving stones. Decades later, the pieces were returned to Remah, and because they were impossible to reconstruct, the fragments were incorporated into the wall.

It seemed to me when I photographed the Remah Cemetery wall that crimes against the dead have always sent a clear message of hate to the living. Unless trends change, the destruction of Jewish headstones may be a bellwether of what's to come.