(JTA) — Police are investigating the spray painting of a swastika inside a Star of David on the entrance wall of a Jewish sports club located on a busy avenue in Rio de Janeiro.
The Nazi symbol, drawn backwards, appeared inside the three-foot-tall Jewish symbol that identifies the Brazilian Israelite Club, a Jewish institution attended by Jews and non-Jews, whose doors commonly remain open for neighborhood events. The vandalism is being treated as a hate crime because it occurred at a venue representing a particular religion.