A customer at Kachinka, the popular Russian restaurant on Southeast Grand Avenue in Portland, carved a swastika in one of the bathroom mirrors over the weekend, the restaurant’s owners said in a Facebook post.

Bonnie Morales, co-owner of Kachka and sister restaurant Kachinka, is the daughter of immigrants from the Soviet Union, which they fled because of anti-Semitism.

“It felt like a violation at such a deep level, that someone who we welcomed, fed and took care of would do something like this to us,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook. “This is the last thing we expected to experience here in Portland.”

The hateful graffiti was cleaned up by Tuesday, but Morales told KOIN News, she felt it was important to get the word out.

"It's so important to not normalize this and to not sweep this under the rug," she said. "We all have to be up in arms anytime anyone does anything hateful like this."

-- Kale Williams

kwilliams@oregonian.com

503-294-4048

@sfkale

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