The creation of a new Jewish Federation in the Maryland state capital was inspired, in part, by the death of Sarah Milgrim, who was murdered along with her boyfriend Yaron Lischinsky a year ago Thursday, when the two Israeli embassy staffers left an American Jewish Committee event about a mile from the White House.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of her and mourn her loss, while also recognizing that it could happen to any Jew at any time anywhere at this point,” Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, co-founder of the Jewish Federation of Annapolis and Chesapeake, told JNS.
“There is not a day that goes by that I’m not working on fighting antisemitism and creating more security for Jews in my community,” she said. “Every single day, I am working on security for Jews, because I know that what happened to Sarah could happen to any of us anywhere at this time.”
The American Jewish community remembered the two Israeli embassy staffers on Thursday.
Milgrim and Lischinsky, who planned to get engaged, had left a Jewish young professionals event at the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21, 2025, when a gunman, who shouted “free Palestine,” killed the two.
Elias Rodriguez faces federal hate-crime and murder charges in connection with the shooting, and the U.S. Justice Department said that it is seeking the death penalty.
“It’s hard to believe that it’s a year ago, because it feels like yesterday,” Ron Halber, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, told JNS. “We think about Yaron and Sarah every day.”
“It was a killing of two young, beautiful people, because they were Jewish and the irony is that this couple, who worked at the embassy, were working on coexistence efforts and modeling what they hoped would be a brighter future for the Jews and the Palestinians,” Halber said.
Milgrim was Jewish. It wasn’t clear if the gunman assumed that Lischinsky was as well.
An audit of incidents of Jew-hatred, which the Anti-Defamation League released recently, found that while incidents were down overall, they still remained elevated since Oct. 7 and violence against Jews was on the rise.
This shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum resonated in particular, because a lot of people knew Milgrim and Lischinsky, according to Halber.
“I was surprised at how many people knew them,” he told JNS. “Personally, I think it had a tremendous impact, and I think it’s viewed very personally.”
Laszlo Mizrahi said that she continues to work on the climate issues, upon which she worked with Milgrim, while also focusing on fighting Jew-hatred.
“It has changed my actions dramatically to see how close to home this is, and then it could happen to any of us,” she told JNS.
Halber told JNS that Jewish institutions, which already operate with tighter security, have stepped that up even more, as they continue to press for more grant funding.
But more needs to be done, he thinks.
“These deaths were caused by a man who was radicalized by antisemitism,” Halber told JNS. “This is what happens when antisemitism spreads, like wildfire, and it’s not checked by responsible people in the middle and on the left and on the right.”
“So on this one year anniversary, I’d like to see more people pledge that when they hear ridiculous antisemitic tropes on social media to fight back,” he said. “I want to hear more elected officials standing up to reject this.”
“And Americans have to step up and say, ‘This is not acceptable,’ and to voice that in the public square and in social media,” he added, “so we diminish the amount of hatred online and reduce the possibility of these sort of attacks occurring in the future.”
