Dead Jews attacked in Philadelphia

Police are searching for the vandals that damaged what one local rabbi said

was nearly 500 headstones at a Jewish graveyard in Philadelphia.

Money is being raised to repair the graves

and to identify and prosecute the apparently anti-Semitic attackers.

The vandalism comes less than a week after a Jewish cemetery

near St Louis, Missouri, was vandalised.

And on Friday, religious slurs and swastikas were spray-painted

in several neighbourhoods of Buffalo, New York.

In a tweet, a former Muslim marine, Tayyib Rashid, pledged:

"If your synagogue or Jewish cemetery needs someone to stand guard,

count me in.

Islam requires it."

The offers to protect religious sites have come from Muslims

include military servicemen, lawyers and Emmy Award-winning TV broadcasters