May 22, 2025
Two employees of the Israeli embassy in Washington D.C. were fatally shot Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where they had just attended an American Jewish Committee event for young Jewish professionals and diplomats. Yaron Lischinsky, a research assistant at the Israeli embassy, and Sarah Milgrim, who organized trips to Israel for the embassy, died in the antisemitic attack.
“We are devastated that two cherished friends and partners from the Israeli embassy were shot and killed as they left an American Jewish Committee (AJC) event at the Capital Jewish Museum earlier this evening," AJC CEO Ted Deutch said. "This is a shocking act of violence and our community is holding each other tighter tonight.
“At this painful moment, we mourn with the victims’ families, loved ones, and all of Israel. May their memories be for a blessing."
Rabbi Noam Marans, AJC's Director of Interreligious Affairs, offered a prayer in the couple's memory.
Sarah and Yaron, “Beloved and cherished, never parted in life or in death.” (2 Samuel 1:23)
We feel them as the inextricable connection between American and Israeli Jews.
Their love, like ours, knows no Jewish geographic boundaries.
They were brought together through the gift of the State of Israel and its transformation of Jewish history. Israel means the Jewish people will never again be powerless. And yet, the sacrifices are enormous.
Our modern American Jewish chronicle of pain has a new locus: Pittsburgh, Poway, Monsey, Jersey City, and now Washington. And innumerable antisemitic attacks, too many to list, in Brooklyn, on campuses, and beyond.
Our young people had gathered to do good. Two of them gunned down by evil, their and their families’ lives shattered.
Antisemitism is not just a Jewish problem. It is a blemish on the civilized world. It requires a whole of society response. To the world we say, are you with us?
Our Jewish fear is real, our Jewish resilience steadfast, our Jewish pride unbreakable. Am Yisrael chai. The Jewish people lives on.
Yehi zikhram barukh. May the memory of Sarah and Yaron be for a blessing.
