Attendees of a hastily called memorial service on Friday for Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim praised the Israeli embassy employees, whom a gunman killed in downtown Washington as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night.
Participants of the online service, led by the American Jewish Committee, also came to mourn the couple, who planned to get engaged within the week, and to talk about how they hoped the two would be the last victims of the surge of Jew-hatred that has engulfed the United States and the rest of the world since the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Rabbi Noam Marans, director of interreligious affairs at the AJC, recited Psalm 23 (“The Lord is my shepherd”) and the Mourner’s Kaddish.
Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot and killed after leaving an AJC event that was part of its ACCESS D.C. program for young professionals. Elias Rodriguez, of Chicago, who shouted “free Palestine” as police arrested him, has been charged with federal and state murder charges.
“We’re all in shock,” said Belle Yoeli, AJC’s chief advocacy officer. “We’re devastated, and we are horrified by another unspeakable act of violence against the Jewish people.”
“We knew it could have happened to any of us anywhere in the world,” said Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee.
“All of us must do what we can to fight antisemitism, to make this a turning point, to make the world understand we will not accept this as normal,” he said.
Melanie Nelkin, chair of the AJC board of governors, wondered aloud how the young people could lose their lives in the nation’s capital because of a conflict on the other side of the world.
“Violent acts against Jews in the name of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the war in Gaza does nothing to further the cause of peace in the region,” Nelkin said. “Shouting, ‘Free, free Palestine’ should not be an invitation to violence.”
Friends of Lischinsky and Milgrim talked about seeing the couple at Wednesday’s gathering at the museum. The two were killed on the street after leaving the event.
Sam Dreiman, who helps lead the ACCESS D.C. group, praised Milgrim’s “courage, bravery and sense of mission.” Her long red hair was the “real-life version” of Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” he said.
Milgrim “was the last person I hugged and said ‘bye’ to before running out” on Wednesday, Dreiman said.
Benjamin Rogers, director for Middle East and North Africa initiatives at the AJC, had been with Lischinsky at the museum event. He said that his friend was not one of those loud voices in the nation’s capital.
“He was a mensch,” Rogers said. “He was one of the best.”
Lischinsky had told Rogers that he was going home to Israel to see his family for the first time in a year.
“He was happy,” Rogers said. “His last moments were filled with joy.” (Milgrim was to accompany Lischinsky, who had bought a ring to propose to her in Jerusalem, according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States.)
Fernando Lottenberg, commissioner for monitoring and combating antisemitism at the Organization of American States, said that Jews are uniquely targeted.
“The anti-Israel movement has been transformed into the anti-Jewish movement,” he said. “This type of attack is something exclusive to Jews. We do not see Russian immigrants being attacked in other countries because of the war in Ukraine.”
Gerard Unger, vice president of an umbrella organization of French Jewish groups that combats Jew-hatred, also spoke. “Our unity is the best way to fight it,” he said. “We have to be stronger and united against that.”
Leiter, the Israeli envoy, joined the call near its end after a memorial service at the embassy had concluded.
“It was a very, very challenging time these past few days,” he said.
Deutch said that the Jewish community should be together at a time like this. “We are immensely grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from friends and allies, Jews and non-Jews alike,” he said. “It speaks to the breadth and depth of our community that we have here today.”
“This is not only about being Jewish or being Zionists,” he said. “It is absolutely about being moral, being human.”