Having lost her parents when she was young, Elizabeth Goldhirsh-Yellin remembered that once the shiva mourning period ended, “things go back to normal for everyone else, and you’re left alone with these losses,” the president of an eponymous family foundation told JNS.
That’s why she decided to donate an ambulance to Magen David Adom in honor of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 26, two Israeli embassy staffers killed by a gunman in May in Washington, D.C., and another ambulance to honor Samantha (“Sami”) Liber, 16, who was killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident in 2024.
“An ambulance is an enduring tribute that will continue to save lives in the name and memory of Sami and Sarah and Yaron, and really will last forever in making sure they and their legacy are never forgotten,” Goldhirsh-Yellin told JNS.
She donated the ambulances on Wednesday evening at the American Friends of Magen David Adom gala, which drew more than 400 people, at a residence in Beverly Hills, Calif. She also received a humanitarian award from Israel’s emergency medical service for millions of dollars in donations to the service and other Israeli causes, as well as to cancer research.
Robert Milgrim thanked Goldhirsh-Yellin and American Friends of Magen David Adom at the event and said that his daughter, for whom the ambulance was in part donated, “dedicated her life to making the world a better place.”
“She lived her Judaism through protecting the environment, through her efforts toward peace building and inclusion of all marginalized groups,” he said. “Sarah lived her life to the fullest in the work she did with the embassy of Israel.”
Milgrim said that he and Sarah’s mother, Nancy Milgrim, are “saddened and deeply disappointed that Sarah is not able to be with us today.”
“Tragically, her life was taken as she and Yaron were leaving an event centered around providing aid to Gaza,” he said. “If she were here today, she would be as inspired by your work as you are inspired by her.”
“There is no more appropriate gift than this ambulance, which will carry on the giving spirit of Sarah and Yaron, which will save lives,” he added.
Daniel Lischinsky said that his son Yaron, was a “shy” but “quick” boy.
“Remembering how shy he was, just to think how he went to Congress, how he spoke to the people in the White House, it’s incredible to me,” he said. “They loved him.”
Lischinsky said that his son and Sarah were murdered “only because they were Jewish. They were Israelis.”
“Why God, why, why do these things happen?” he said. “Sometimes, I think Almighty God gives us peace, gives us a little bit of rest, but then I remember that we are destined to leave this world with a sword in our hands.”
Goldhirsh-Yellin told JNS that she felt a “special connection” to Yaron and Sarah because she worked at the Israeli consulate general in Boston when she was young. She also studied the Middle East and interfaith subjects in graduate school and had wanted to work as a religion journalist.
“I was hoping to be involved in diplomatic circles covering the United Nations, covering what’s going on in the Middle East, and I just felt such a sense of kinship with both of them in terms of their areas of interest,” she told JNS. “That story really affected me.”
The gunman who killed the two young people, who were planning to get engaged, was “radicalized by a far-left constellation of groups, and this is the real-life consequence of what that means,” she said. “Two young people lost their lives in a very horrific way.”
“I hope that this calls attention to that,” she said.
Goldhirsh-Yellin told JNS that her son went to preschool with Liber, the 16-year-old who died in the accident, and for whom she also donated an ambulance.
Liber, 16, who was killed in an all-terrain vehicle accident in 2024. “She was our neighbor,” she said. “She was just an angelic little girl who was a big part of our lives.”
“I just hope that neither story is forgotten,” she said. “Sami gave so much to our community, and Sarah and Yaron gave so much to the broader Jewish people and to all kinds of groups that are looking to build a more peaceful Middle East.”
“I really wanted to pass it forward to these families, and show how saving lives is the best legacy of all,” Goldhirsh-Yellin said.
Gilad Erdan, global president of Magen David Adom and former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations in New York, told JNS that “many Jews started to get themselves more involved and more active” since Oct. 7.
“We can do more. We can do better,” he said. “The first ambulance in Israel was purchased thanks to people here who care for the future of our homeland, and even today, a lot of our facilities—state-of-the-art, the most advanced on Earth—our blood center was built thanks to the support we get here.”
Erdan added that Milgrim and Lischinsky will always be remembered. “They tied their destiny with the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” he said. “They will never be forgotten, and we will always cherish their memory.”
