During a recent visit to the Beth Israel Cemetery in Egg Harbor Township, Andrew Latz, whose family has a mausoleum there, found the bronze gates had been torn off the archway and stolen.
This was one of several recent instances of vandalism at the burial ground maintained by the Beth Israel Synagogue in Northfield.
Built by his great-grandmother, the family’s surname is engraved above the mausoleum’s archway. About a half-dozen Latz’s rest beside a stained-glass depiction of a shepherd with a prayer dedicated to his great-grandmother. Latz said he found a pile of debris inside the mausoleum.
“I find it saddening,” Latz said, adding his family is working to replace the stolen gates, valued at between $4,000 and $6,000. “It kind of brought us all together because we’re doing this like a