A suspect connected to the recent vandalism at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia has turned himself in to police, the local NBC outlet reported on Tuesday.
On Aug. 18, an Israeli flag banner on the front of the museum was vandalized with red paint sprayed over words that read, “The Weitzman Stands With Israel.” The museum’s flag, which had been cleaned, and more sections of the building’s outside areas were again spray-painted in a separate incident on Aug. 25.
While the person is expected to face charges in connection with the incidents, an investigation into the vandalism remains ongoing, police said.
After the second incident, the museum said it would not replace the flag, instead deciding to “expedite” the placement of a “hostage-focused sign” planned to go up outside the building closer to the second anniversary of the Hamas-led terror attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The museum reversed course on that decision, choosing to hang both banners after an immediate backlash from the community.
“What we certainly did not intend with this plan was 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,” Dan Tadmor, the museum’s president and CEO, stated in August.
As the nation’s Jewish museum, he said, “there can never be any misunderstanding as to our identity and positions: We are a proudly Jewish and proudly Zionist institution.”
