Michael Chelst, owner of Char Bar, the kosher restaurant in Washington DC that was vandalized in an antisemitic attack on the 86th anniversary of Kristallnacht, spoke to Arutz Sheva – Israel National News.
Chelst says that his first reaction after hearing about the attack was: “Really, what for? This is stupid. This is not going to accomplish anything. It’s not going to change anything. Annoy people, waste resources, when there are bigger issues to deal with in this world".
"My second reaction was to make sure that my staff and customers felt safe and secure", he says, "There were two bricks, probably granite, that were thrown at two windows, probably by two people. They destroyed the glass. No one came inside. That was the extent of it.”
“I’m not a fearful person. I wear my religion proud. But it’s concerning because it reminds me of things that are happening all over the country, all over the world. This time these people were cowards and came in the middle of the night, when they knew we were closed, but unfortunately, it could have been much more serious and dangerous,” admits Chelst.
He explains that, “We’re a five-minute walk from George Washington University, that had extensive protests related to Gaza and we see it all around the city, stickers of hate [from the river to the sea], so you see it, but you don’t always think about it. When it comes to your place, it starts to hit a bit differently. As the owner of a kosher restaurant, seeing what has happened in other places around the world, I’m actually not surprised that this happened. It’s disheartening, but it’s not something that is happening too often.”
A few years ago there was another incident, which Chelst does not define as “one hundred percent antisemitic".
"This was during the Black Lives Matters riots that were going on throughout the city", he explains, "so the topic wasn’t really antisemitism, but it was a hate crime and we reported it. As this was on the eve of Kristallnacht, and at a time that there was a Jewish rally, there were plenty of other places that they could have chosen, but they took rocks that had to have transported from somewhere else, and they drove them here, and made that decision to attack the restaurant.”
Char Bar is the only Kosher restaurant offering a waiter service in DC. "The only real gathering place for people in downtown DC”, Chelst explains.
“It's a responsibility,” he says, “and that's what I love about it. I've got four different careers that I do and this for me is a passion project. For example, we serve 10,000 students on eighth-grade school trips from Sao Paulo, Brazil every year, all the way to senators, congressmen and others that come on a regular basis, and business people as well. We really do try to meet the needs of the people coming to visit DC, as well as to provide some food support for people here, through the hospitals or the local community.
Chelst says he has been “honored to serve members of Knesset who have been visiting Washington, even though I’m sure that they would not be seen together in Israel. We had a lot of events when the Abraham Accords were coming into play. We had an event when they were honoring Anwar Sadat, posthumously. The Egyptian Ambassador hosted an event at our restaurant with other political leaders.”
Chelst describes his restaurant as “a fun place, where one of our real focuses on is making the restaurant something that is high quality enough that anybody is comfortable bringing someone who is not of kosher or Jewish background, and that they can really have a nice dinner with them. We represent DC and we're proud of the quality of our product. It is a passion and it's something we work on really hard, because we need to have a quality environment for our kosher community to share with family and other people.”