The father of slain Israeli embassy staffer Sarah Milgrim described his daughter as a source of strength and courage in the family’s first network TV interview since her murder in Washington, D.C. on May 21.
“Usually a parent tries to mold their child; Sarah molded us,” a grieving and emotionally shaken Robert Milgrim told CBS News‘ Jonah Kaplan. “She was a stronger person than I ever was.”
Sarah’s mother, Nancy, and her older brother, Jacob, joined the interview, which airs on Wednesday. A preview was published online on Tuesday.
“I told Nancy after this happened that I’m a different person now than before—sadly—from learning so much about what Sarah did and her courage.” He then affirmed Kaplan’s addition, saying, “And her striving for peace, yes.”
Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, and fellow embassy staffer and her Israeli partner, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were gunned down after attending an event centered on improving humanitarian aid to the Middle East.
The shooter, identified as Elias Rodriguez, apparently wanted to kill Israelis or Jews at the American Jewish Committee event hosted by the Capital Jewish Museum. He shouted “Free, free, Palestine” and claimed he “did it for Gaza.”
Milgrim’s funeral was held at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kansas, on May 27. She was brought up in Kansas City’s small Jewish community.
The shooting happened days before Milgrim and Lischinsky were to fly to Israel, where he intended to propose, said Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States. Instead, their funerals were held a day apart—Milgrim’s in Kansas and Lischinsky’s in Israel.
She was a graduate student at American University’s School of International Service and worked tirelessly to promote peace between Israel and its neighbors before she joined the Israeli embassy.
The double murder in D.C. was followed 11 days later by an attack on a Boulder, Colorado, rally for Israeli hostages held by Hamas terrorists in Gaza, further intensifying concerns over escalating antisemitic violence in the United States.