Washington, D.C. – Today, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Queens & Brooklyn), joined by 20 other Democratic and Republican Members of Congress, called on Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to stop all construction in and around the Neman Stadium, in Grodno, Belarus.  The stadium lies partially on a Jewish cemetery, and the current work is destroying Jewish graves.

            The Neman Stadium was built in the 1960’s, partially over a Jewish cemetery.  At the time, local Jews objected to the desecration, but to no avail.  The stadium has stood for the past 40 years.  

Now, however, it’s being upgraded and the surrounding area excavated.  Witnesses report that bulldozers have destroyed hundreds of graves, and that human bones stick up through the ground at the worksite.  After the snow melted this spring, Grodno residents were horrified to find that their roads, which had been repaved with dirt from the work site, were littered with human remains and Hebrew headstones.

Today, Rep. Anthony Weiner, joined by 20 other Members of Congress, sent an urgent letter to President Lukashenko calling for the immediate cessation of any construction at the site. 

“The Jewish faith regards cemeteries with the highest degree of sanctity, and inviolability that they retain in perpetuity,” wrote Rep. Weiner and the other Members.  “Any disturbance of the cemetery, especially to remains and tombstones, is considered an act of desecration of the most severe gravity.” 

The following Members of Congress joined co-signed Rep. Weiner’s letter to President Lukashenko:  Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-FL), Rep. Thomas Tancredo (R-CO), Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ), Rep. Martin Frost (D-TX), Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-TX), Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-CA), Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Albert Russell Wynn (D-MD), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA). Rep. William Lipinski (D-IL), Rep. Lane Evans (D-IL), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL), Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), and Rep. Joseph Hoeffel.