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A man scrawled an antisemitic inscription on Thursday on a sculpture outside Philadelphia’s Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, marking the third vandalism incident targeting the institution in nearly a year.
At around 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, surveillance footage captured a suspect defacing the work before boarding a train nearby. As of Sunday, police had not apprehended the suspect or disclosed what he wrote. They appealed for tips that could identify the suspect.
Pennsylvania State Representative Tarik Khan spotted the graffiti and alerted authorities. “It just turned my stomach,” Khan told WPVI. He said people must “stand up against hate in our community,” whether they were Jewish or not.
The defaced sculpture stands on Independence Mall, near Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Jewish artist Deborah Kass created the aluminum work, which measures about eight feet tall and roughly 16 feet wide. One side reads “YO,” a familiar Philadelphia expression, while the other reads “OY,” the Yiddish exclamation. Kass has described it as a call to resist hatred and division.
The museum endured two red-paint attacks in a single week last August. Vandalism hit its facade, its plaza, and a large Israeli flag above the words “Weitzman Stands With Israel.” Leroy Hayes, 33, later surrendered to police. He faced charges of ethnic intimidation, criminal mischief, and possession of an instrument of crime.
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