A number of tombstones found overturned in an historic Jewish cemetery in New York fell over due to environmental causes and poor maintenance, not vandalism, police said.

Officers were called to the Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn on Saturday evening to investigate the damaged graves, but police determined that the damage was due to soil erosion and natural weathering, not vandalism, according to CNN.

Some of the headstones seen toppled in a Sunday morning tour of the grave yard conducted by New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind had actually been toppled over for years, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Early concerns of an intentional attack followed a rash of vandalism at Jewish cemeteries and 122 bomb threats called in to Jewish organizations in three dozen states since early January. Disgraced former journalist Juan Thompson is accused of making eight of those bomb threats, authorities revealed on Friday.

Members of the Shomrim Brooklyn South Safety Patrol, a private group that patrols predominately Jewish neighborhoods, investigate Washington Cemetery on Saturday night

The Shomrim are seen meeting with a police investigator, center, after reporting suspected vandalism of gravestones in the predominately Jewish Brooklyn cemetery

Community members survey toppled tombstones in Washington Cemetery Sunday morning

Washington Cemetery was founded in 1850, and quickly became a predominately Jewish burial ground, although the Brooklyn cemetery also has many Christian graves

A broken tombstone is seen in the cemetery on Sunday. Police suspect the damaged tombstones actually fell some time ago due to poor maintenance

A state assemblyman insisted Sunday morning that the graves had been vandalized, but police concluded that the damage was environmental

Hikind said a Jewish resident of Brooklyn's Midwood neighborhood was walking past Washington Cemetary on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, when the resident noticed gravestones that appeared to be out of place.

The resident waited until sunset on Saturday, the end of the Sabbath, and then reported the disturbance to the Shomrim, a neighborhood watch group that patrols several heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

Police were alerted, and investigators arrived Saturday night and Sunday morning to check the graveyard.

'In light of everything going on in the country we wanted to see what was going on,' Hikind said at an impromptu press conference on Sunday morning. 'The police commissioner was down here, the crew chiefs, the bias unit was down here and they're taking it seriously.'

'In the cemetery there are many tombstones that clearly have been pushed over, clearly vandalized,' Hikind continued. 'We are not talking about tombstones that are naturally lying down, there are some of those. All you gotta do is walk in there and see that something is just not right.'

Police disagreed though, finding that the tombstones were likely toppled by soil erosion and poor maintenance.

Washington Cemetery, which is predominantly Jewish, was founded in 1850, and became a Jewish burial ground as early as 1857.

New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind (right) is seen with NYPD officials at Washington Cemetery on Sunday, surveying damage to graves

Hikind (right) and a member of the Shomrim private safety patrol seen on Sunday

Hikind (second from left) consults with police. The politician said 40 gravestones had been vandalized, but police investigators did not agree with that conclusion

New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind gives a small press conference on Sunday. 'We are not talking about tombstones that are naturally lying down,' he said, but natural causes were quickly determined to be the case

In 2010, Washington Cemetery was actually targeted by vandals, who covered as many as 200 gravestones in graffiti and toppled them over, the New York Post reported at the time.

On Sunday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo responded to vandalism at an upstate cemetery and bomb threats against Jewish institutions while on a visit to Jerusalem.

Speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Cuomo says the recent incidents 'violated every tenant of the New York state tradition.' He said the state has posted rewards and put together a special police unit to combat the phenomenon.

'New York state by its definition is a celebration of diversity, it accepts all, we believe in the spirit of inclusion and we live by discrimination of none. New York's principles are built on a rock they will not change and the political wings will not change them,' he said, alongside Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, left, and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin shake hands at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Sunday

About 100 headstones were recently overturned in a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia. That came about a week after a similar crime in Missouri.

On Thursday, about 16 headstones were toppled and several other defaced at a Jewish cemetery in Rochester, New York, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported.

In Indiana, an apparent gunshot fired into a synagogue Tuesday has drawn the attention of the FBI.

Cuomo, who returns to New York Monday, will also meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tour the Western Wall and attend a security briefing at Jerusalem's Old City Police Headquarters.

He'll also host a New York State-Israel Economic Development working lunch with the mayor of Jerusalem.