Cordoba's Maimonides Statue Defaced with Nazi Swastika, City Condemns Hate Crime

Over the weekend, the statue of Maimonides in Cordoba's Jewish quarter in Spain was vandalized with a Nazi swastika spray-painted on its base. The statue, located in Plaza de Tiberíades, honors Maimonides, a prominent Jewish philosopher, physician, and rabbi born in Cordoba in 1135. The local government strongly condemned the act, calling it a "severe message of hate" and "an attack on heritage." The Spanish National Police have launched an investigation into the incident, with no suspects arrested so far.

Cordoba's acting mayor, Cynthia Bustos, expressed the city council's sorrow over the hateful graffiti. Due to the weekend timing, a specialized cleaning crew is scheduled to remove the graffiti on Monday to avoid further damage to the statue. Israeli tourists visiting the site reportedly expressed shock at the Nazi symbol.

The director of Casa de Sefarad, a nearby museum dedicated to Jewish-Spanish heritage, described the vandalism as stemming from ignorance, noting the perpetrators likely targeted the statue solely because Maimonides was Jewish. This is not the first antisemitic attack in the area; previous incidents included Nazi symbols painted on the synagogue, Casa de Sefarad, and even a statue of Jesus known as Cristo de los Faroles.

Maimonides is traditionally believed to be buried in Tiberias, Israel. In 2005, a statue intended for a plaza named after Cordoba in Tiberias was donated to a city in Morocco after opposition from local religious and political figures. The recent defacement highlights ongoing challenges related to antisemitism in historic Jewish sites in Spain.