On May 22, some 15 hours after a gunman killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Muriel Bowser, the D.C. mayor, stated that she was sending “prayers and condolences” to relatives of the victims and that “we will not tolerate antisemitism.”
Six days later, the mayor was a no-show at a Jewish unity and solidarity gathering held on the George Washington University campus on Wednesday night.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov, the executive vice president of American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad), told the audience that it would hear “the words of comfort that the mayor has to say for us tonight.”
Shemtov stepped away from the podium for about 25 seconds, leaving it empty.
“That’s exactly right, folks,” he said, upon returning to the microphone. “The mayor’s staff said she was coming, and we all heard her message of concern for our community, which is nothing tonight.”
“We were told they were going to get her there and specifically how her speaking would work, and we were just waiting to know what time her arrival would be,” Shemtov told JNS. “The next thing we hear, she was having a problem getting there schedule-wise. We were never told about that until closer to the event. We wouldn’t have publicized her name if we didn’t think she was coming.”
“She could have found the time to come even briefly as a person and say ‘I am with you,’” he added.
The mayor’s office told JNS that she was never confirmed for the event “and suggestions to the contrary are incorrect.”
Asked about that statement, Shemtov told JNS that he received a clear, written communication from senior staff in the mayor’s office that they would “make sure” that they can get the mayor there.
“If there was some miscommunication internally within the mayor’s office, or if she decided afterward not to come, that is one thing,” Shemtov said, “but to suggest that there was never a confirmation of her attendance is simply not true.”
The shooting is a tragedy that “shattered everyone,” Shemtov told JNS. “When I didn’t hear of anything happening, we decided to do our own event. We made it no one’s event, so it could be everyone’s event.” (There were no organization logos on an advertisement for the event.)
According to Shemtov, many in Washington, including he, think of Bowser as “otherwise a pretty good mayor, but when it comes to showing concern and showing up, her record is pretty spotty.”
“The reinforcement that comes with public officials actually showing up, as opposed to press events, is all but incalculable,” Shemtov told JNS. “That is why I think there was such disappointment in the mayor’s decision not to show up.” (The mayor spoke at an event reopening the Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday morning.)
Sam Markstein, the national political director at the Republican Jewish Coalition, wrote that Bowser’s decision not to attend the event on Wednesday was “cowardly and disgraceful.”
“What in God’s name could have been more important for the mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, than joining a Jewish community solidarity event on the eve of the Capital Jewish Museum’s reopening in the wake of horrific antisemitic murders last week,” he stated.
‘Pain into perseverance’
Some 300 people gathered at the George Washington University’s Betts Theater on Wednesday night for the event, according to Shemtov.
Robert Milgrim, whose daughter Sarah Milgrim was killed in the attack, told the audience live—over the phone, which Shemtov held up to the microphone—that “Sarah was the perfect child.”
“Sarah would not want our hearts to remain broken,” Milgrim said. “She wants our hearts to mend, so that we can do what she set out to do, which was to fight hate and antisemitism, create love, bridge gaps between minorities and to love and respect the environment.”
Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the United States, told the audience that Jew-hatred is “as old as Judaism.”
“How do we pick up the pieces and move forward?” he said. “If I had to summarize the essence of Jewish survival, I would say that’s the essence—turning pain into perseverance.”
Leiter, who is a rabbi and whose son Moshe Yedidyah Leiter was killed while fighting against Hamas terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip on Nov. 10, 2023, described first receiving the call that Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky had been killed, which he called “very personal.”
“I had been on the receiving end of the knock on the door. A knock on the door that told me my son had been killed,” he told the audience. “Now I had to make the phone call. I had to do the knocking.”
Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights, told the audience that the United States isn’t doing enough to fight Jew-hatred.”
“The Trump administration is 110% dedicated to the safety of Jewish Americans,” she told JNS. “What happened here in D.C. was shameful for all Americans and cannot happen in America.”
Pamela Smith, chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, told JNS that the department—which she called the nation’s best—is “very well connected with the intelligence community.”
“We work very closely together and we take threats very seriously,” she said.
Ron Halber, the CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, also addressed the crowd.
“This one incident, while horrible, should not stop people from going about their lives and plans,” he told JNS. “If anything, it should incentivize people to come out more, be proud of who they are publicly and live their lives.”
The program included recitation of Tehillim (Psalms) by Rabbi Mordechai Newman, director of the Chabad Lubavitch of Alexandria-Arlington, and several communal songs.
“The best antidote to antisemitism is an informed and robust semitism,” Shemtov told the audience.