from Mainstream Media
The museum near Independence Hall and its Israeli flag display were vandalized with red paint twice last month.
Philadelphia police on Tuesday said a 33-year-old South Jersey man has been charged in connection with two incidents last month of vandalizing the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History and its large Israeli flag display with red paint.
Leroy Hayes, of Woodbury, was charged with ethnic intimidation, criminal mischief, and possession of an instrument of crime, police said.
Hayes surrendered to police on Monday.
On Aug. 18, the Israeli flag and a white section beneath it that reads “The Weitzman Stands with Israel” on the west-facing wall were vandalized with red paint.
On Aug. 25, the museum’s manager notified police that an unknown individual had vandalized additional areas of the museum’s walls and grounds.
The museum had been planning to replace its entire Israeli flag display with a large “Bring Them Home Now” display to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas and to bring attention to the hostages who are still in captivity, a spokesperson for the Weitzman said last month.
A few days after the second incident, however, Dan Tadmor, president and CEO of the museum, issued a statement saying a version of the Israeli flag would remain as part of the building display.
Tadmor said the museum did not want to create “a perception that we were capitulating to vandals or had somehow walked back our position of unequivocal support for Israel and its people.”
Tadmor added: “As the nation’s Jewish museum, there can never be any misunderstanding as to our identity and positions: we are a proudly Jewish and proudly Zionist institution.”
Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement after the second vandalism incident:
“The Weitzman Museum is literally steps away from the birthplace of democracy and a symbol of liberty and justice for all. Antisemitic vandalism has no place there — or anywhere in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania — and must be universally condemned. Expressing views through acts of hate doesn’t further a cause.”
