Over the weekend, vandals toppled and damaged more than 150 headstones at the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in St Louis – a Jewish graveyard. Two well known American Muslim activists — Tarek El-Messidi and Linda Sarsour — have started a fundraiser page to help pay for the repairs, and as of Thursday evening, over $100,000 was raised, far exceeding goals.
“Through this campaign, we hope to send a united message from the Jewish and Muslim communities that there is no place for this type of hate, desecration, and violence in America,” the fundraising page reads. “We pray that this restores a sense of security and peace to the Jewish-American community who has undoubtedly been shaken by this event.”
“This is really a human issue,” says Tarek El-Messidi. “But out of this horrible election cycle, something beautiful has come out of it and [Muslims and Jews have] bonded together to support each other and stand up to this hate. Politics can get in the way of our basic humanity, I hope this breaks through all those walls, no pun intended, to help bring us closer together.”
