Maimonides Statue in Cordoba Sprayed with Swastika. Municipality: 'Damage to Heritage and Severe Hate Message'
A statue of Maimonides in the Jewish quarter of Cordoba, Spain, was sprayed with a Nazi swastika over the weekend. The municipality condemned the act as 'damage to heritage' and 'a hate message of extreme severity'. Spain's national police have opened an investigation. The acting mayor, Cynthia Bustos, condemned the vandalism on behalf of the city council. No suspects have been arrested so far. A municipal cleaning crew is expected to treat the graffiti on Monday.
A statue of Maimonides, located in Tiberias Square in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Cordoba, Spain, was sprayed with a Nazi swastika over the weekend. The statue commemorates Maimonides, who was born in Cordoba in 1135 and is considered one of the greatest Jewish philosophers, physicians, and rabbis of the Middle Ages. The Cordoba city council strongly condemned the act, and the acting mayor, Cynthia Bustos, described the vandalism as 'damage to heritage' and expressed regret over 'the extreme severity of the hate message that the graffiti represents'. Spain's national police have opened an investigation, and no suspects have been arrested so far. Since the incident occurred over the weekend, the municipal cleaning company will only send a team of experts to clean the graffiti on Monday. According to reports in local media, a family of Israeli tourists visiting the site expressed shock at the sight of the Nazi symbol. The director of Casa de España, the museum dedicated to Sephardic Jewish heritage, said the act stems from ignorance, adding that 'the vandals only know that he was Jewish'. This is not the first case of anti-Semitic vandalism in the area; in the past, Nazi symbols were sprayed on the synagogue, Casa de España, and a statue of Jesus.