The cemetery in Beirut's Sodeco district, which dates back to the early 1820s and is Lebanon's only Jewish cemetery, has been closed to the public for many years.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Heavy rain and winds toppled the cemetery's stone wall, tumbling onto several graves and tombstones that came crashing down. The fallen tombstones with Hebrew writing on them could be seen from the main street where the wall had collapsed.

Lebanon once had a thriving Jewish community. As many as 15,000 to 22,000 Jews lived in Lebanon in the mid-1960s, but the various Arab-Israeli wars and Lebanon's own 1975-1990 conflict caused waves of emigration and today, almost none are left in the country.

The storm, which has been dubbed "Loulou," has lashed Lebanon and also caused flooding and landslides in parts of the country.

The post Storm topples wall, graves in old Jewish cemetery in Beirut appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

According to local media reports, authorities said they had discovered 107 tombs spray-painted with swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans in a Jewish graveyard near the German border.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Reports of the attack came as the French National Assembly passed a resolution that stated that anti-Zionism is akin to anti-Semitism and called on other countries to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of anti-Semitism.

The vandalism in Westhoffen was discovered hours after a similar attack on another Jewish cemetery in the nearby village of Schaffhouse-sur-Zorn.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner condemned the "heinous acts" on Twitter, saying authorities will not rest until the vandals are brought to justice.

The Alsace region has witnessed a series of racist and anti-Semitic incidents in recent months. In February, over  90 graves were defaced with swastikas at the Quatzenheim Jewish cemetery, north of Strasbourg.

The post Jewish cemetery in France vandalized, over 100 graves desecrated appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

                                            Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Only last December, the Jewish community of Cape Town was shocked when the Jewish cemetery in Wellington, about 45 minutes away from Cape Town, was desecrated. The Jewish community announced that 39 Jewish headstones were desecrated by unknown individuals. Stuart Diamond, the head of the Jewish community in Cape Town, said at the time: "Our community is shocked by this attack. According to the Constitution, South Africa belongs to everyone who lives in it, and they must be respected and accepted by the other."

Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog called on countries to take strong action to combat the troubling and rising phenomenon.

"I appeal to governments around the world and to law enforcement authorities to not take it lightly, and to take a firm hand against any manifestation of anti-Semitism," he said.

Deputy Chairman of the World Zionist Organization, Yaakov Hagoel, responded on Sunday to the anti-Semitic event, saying: "These incidents, unfortunately, spread like wildfire and have become a global trend, and these are very serious incidents that must be stopped immediately before they kill Jews.

"The South African police must stop these attackers and it is the South African government's responsibility to act accordingly against such incidents. If this is indeed the actions of a neo-Nazi cell, we must put an end to it, the sooner the better," Hagoel said.

The post Jewish graves vandalized in South Africa appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.