They remembered Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday evening, as lawmakers of both political parties vowed to continue the fight against the Jew-hatred that has led to violence and the deaths of two young Israeli embassy employees on a Washington street earlier this month.
“It’s a dangerous time to be a Jewish American,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at the beginning of a 30-minute vigil, which drew more than 100 people, on the House steps.
“Where is the outrage for these two young victims?” Johnson said. “We must stand up and protect our Jewish brothers and sisters.”
“Moments of challenge require more of us,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who told the Jewish community that “we will not let you shoulder this burden alone.”
“In this country, antisemitism has been metastasizing like a malignant tumor, and we must all work together to eradicate this cancer,” he said.
The vigil took place a day after the House voted, 400-0, to once again condemn antisemitism after Jews, who peacefully marched for the release of the hostages in Gaza, were burned by Molotov cocktails in Boulder, Colo.; Milgrim and Lischinsky were gunned down after leaving a Jewish event; and the governor’s mansion in Harrisburg, Pa., was set ablaze after Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro had finished a Passover seder.
In all three cases, the perpetrators expressed solidarity with the Palestinians during a war that began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel.
“There is a straight line from the demonization of Israel to the antisemitic violence that impacts real people,” said Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee and a former congressman. (The Israeli embassy staffers were leaving an AJC event when they were killed.)
“It just isn’t normal for any group in America to have to pray and mourn behind armed guards, checkpoints and metal detectors,” Deutch said.

Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, said that “we must not hesitate to condemn those calling for violence against the Jews and against all those lovers of Zion.”
“The intifada has been globalized, and like Orwell’s 1984, ‘free free Palestine’ means ‘death, death Israel,’” he said. “It is now incumbent on all of us to confront it.”
Deutch said that antisemitism, from the left and the right, must be called out.
“Antisemitism is antisemitism, period. There should be no more debate about which kind of antisemitism is more dangerous or which we need to be more afraid of,” he said. “Both must be condemned by everyone. No excuses, because if you can only see antisemitism when it is convenient, then we’re not seeing it at all.”
Speakers remembered Milgrim, 26, and Lischinsky, 30, as peace advocates and bridge builders.
Johnson also noted that the two “devoted themselves to peace.” But, he said, “the monster who murdered them was not motivated by peace, but something very different. He went to a Jewish museum to hunt down Jewish people.”
“We want to be crystal clear tonight,” the House speaker said. “This is targeted antisemitic terrorism. There are no shades of gray, and there is no other way to describe it.”
Leiter said that Milgrim, an American, and Lischinsky, an Israeli, “represented the unbreakable bond between our two great nations.”
“Sarah and Yaron believed America and Israel each hold a unique place in the world,” he said.