Metropolitan Police Department officers are investigating shattered windows at the Char Bar, a kosher restaurant about a block away from campus, as local leaders and community members offer support for the business in the days following Saturday’s incident.
On Saturday morning, MPD officers responded to a report from a “concerned citizen” about broken windows at Char Bar on the 2100 block of L Street, where they found two smashed windows and rocks on the sidewalk, a MPD spokesperson said in an email. In the days after the act of vandalism, a local leader called on the Foggy Bottom and West End Advisory Neighborhood Commission to pass a resolution to support Char Bar at the group’s next meeting, and community members revitalized a GoFundMe page for the restaurant.
The GoFundMe, which initially launched 2020 following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and a separate vandalism incident, was revitalized by the community to help the restaurant pay repair costs. The page raised more than $23,000 as of Wednesday night.
Yehuda Malka, the manager of the Char Bar, said someone smashed the windows on the evening of Nov. 9, which was the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass — recognized annually as the day Nazi soldiers vandalized Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and homes in Germany in 1938.
“The vandalism is one thing, the other issue was just the timeline of it all, it happened on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, which obviously was a terrible beginning to a lot of terrible things that happened,” Malka said.
Since Saturday, the windows of the restaurant have been boarded up.
Malka said whoever smashed Char Bar’s windows did not leave a note, and while he can’t confirm the perpetrator’s motive, Char Bar is the only business “nearby” that was vandalized and the only kosher establishment in the area aside from the GW Hillel building.
“We don’t know,” Malka said. “But certainly the people in the Jewish community are very sensitive to it, so you know, we’ve got our guards up.”
MPD said detectives are investigating the vandalism, but there is no evidence that the act was motivated by hate or bias.
Jim Malec, the newly elected 2A08 commissioner, said he reached out Saturday morning to his former ANC commissioners to ask them how they can support Char Bar, the owner, employees and the Jewish community in Ward 2.
“I expect that a resolution in support of Char Bar will be drafted and introduced at the next ANC meeting,” Malec said. “I expect that resolution will include a call on MPD to be transparent about their investigations and to continue with the investigations until they figure out who perpetrated this.”
ANC 2A will meet on Nov. 20.
