Photo courtesy of MPD.

The Metropolitan Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying the person, or people, who keeps defacing a busy Chinatown crosswalk with anti-Semitic graffiti. They’re offering a $1,000 reward through Crime Solvers for information that leads to an arrest or conviction.

The MPD release lists three times in which the 7th and H NW intersection, which has a public art installation depicting the dozen animals that represent the Chinese zodiac, been defaced with “JEW” written inside the rats. D.C. Police was dispatched to the scene on August 1, August 8, and August 9, though the graffiti also appeared on August 3.

According to a police report from the August 1 incident, law enforcement is investigating it as a suspected hate crime. Maintenance employees with the DowntownDC Business Improvement District and the District Department of Transportation have worked to remove the graffiti when it shows up.

“There’s definitely four different times it appeared and we cleaned it,” says Rachel Hartman, spokesperson for DowntownDC BID. “The DowntownDC BID supports MPD in whatever capacity they’re working to find and apprehend the person or persons behind these incidents. We help maintain the public space downtown and are committed to keeping it clean, safe, and friendly for everyone.”

The police do not have any known suspects, and are not sure yet whether there’s one perpetrator or the continued instances could be a series of copycats.

“The graffiti itself is very disturbing,” says Rabbi Batya Steinlauf, the director of D.C. advocacy and community relations for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. “It’s classic anti-Semitism and should not be minimized. It not only suggests that Jews are not human but suggests that they’re worthy of destruction. What do you do with rats and bugs? You destroy them.”

Steinlauf has been heartened, however, by the city’s response to the graffiti. “Everyone took it very seriously,” she says. “There was an absolute understanding that this was very disturbing and we need to respond in a very determined way.”

She initially learned about it from Reverend Thomas Bowen, the director of the Mayor’s Office of Religious Affairs.

“My immediate reaction was to reach out to people I know in the Jewish community,” says Bowen. “To stand with them and let them know that we are a city that embraces all people and all faiths.”

Both Bowen and Steinlauf discussed concerns that discussing the graffiti too much would encourage further defacement. “Those people aren’t going to be upset if we make a fuss—they’ll be thrilled,” says Steinlauf.

Instead, they want to generate more connections in the interfaith community. “The general sense is that there’s a present climate that calls for us to address hate and hate speech, and that’s got to be something ongoing,” says Bowen. “We have to look at what it means to not only have free speech but responsible speech.”

He adds that “in some cases there are increases in hate speech but it’s also because of certain social media” that people know about it. “We have not been told that there has been some other incidences we should associate with this, and we’re thankful for that.”

There are plans for a conversation with faith leaders, tentatively scheduled for September.

“Is there some kind of program we can create to join together and acknowledge and consider how we can address issues of anti-Semitic graffiti, hate speech, and the general tenor of society that allows this sort of attitude to flourish?” asks Steinlauf. “We want to respond in a positive way.”

Police are asking anyone with information about this incident to call 202-727-9099 or send an anonymous text message to 50411. Updated to clarify that the reward is through Crime Solvers.