Ten months after his daughter, Israeli Embassy employee Sarah Milgrim, was shot dead alongside her boyfriend and colleague, Yaron Lischinsky, outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Bob Milgrim said he feels a “deeper connection to the Jewish community [than] we ever felt before.” 

On Tuesday evening, at the conclusion of the Anti-Defamation League’s Never is Now conference in Manhattan, Milgrim was joined in conversation with his wife, Nancy Milgrim, and CBS News reporter Jonah Kaplan. In June, Kaplan conducted the family’s first interview after Sarah was killed.

The support from the Jewish community since Sarah’s death, when she was shot by a gunman who allegedly shouted “Free Palestine” while leaving an event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee last May, has been “totally overwhelming in a positive way,” said Bob Milgrim. 

The Milgrims spoke days after another Jewish community was rocked by an antisemitic attack last week, in which an assailant drove a truck filled with explosives into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., one of the largest Reform synagogues in the country, while 140 children were inside. Security guards prevented any casualties in the attempted terrorist attack. 

Two months earlier, an antisemitic arsonist heavily damaged Beth Israel Congregation, the only synagogue in Jackson, Miss.   

“It’s very easy to lose hope with what’s happening, especially with what happened at Temple Israel … and Mississippi,” said Milgrim. “There’s no end to it. But when you have hope you have to act. Even when you don’t have hope, you have to act.” 

Addressing high school and college students in the audience, Milgrim said Sarah was one of only about 15 Jewish students at the high school she attended in Kansas. Drawing on Sarah’s involvement in the Jewish student union while in high school, he said, “you’ve got to be out there and let them know we’re no different from anybody else and we all want to coexist in peace.” 

Milgrim reflected on an incident during Sarah’s senior year when swastikas were painted on the school building. When interviewed by a TV reporter, who asked her what the punishment for the perpetrator should be, Sarah said they “should be told to be more tolerant and nicer.” 

“She didn’t want revenge, she saw the good in all people,” said Milgrim. 

“Sarah was very proud to be Jewish and she didn’t shy away from letting people know she was Jewish,” added Nancy Milgrim. “I encourage you all to try to feel proud of who you are and let people know all the good of being Jewish.”

As the Milgrims continue to say the mourner’s prayer of Kaddish every morning, when the weather permits, while watching the sun rise at a park in their neighborhood —- alongside Sarah’s dog, Andy, and a virtual minyan —- Bob Milgrim said he “knows that we have family everywhere.” 

“It’s more than a connection, it’s family. And that’s a beautiful experience that’s helped us get through this.”

Sarah’s work, which included a stint at Teach2Peace, an organization dedicated to building peace between Palestinians and Israelis, should inspire others “to do the things she was doing, reaching out to others who are not like you, inviting the stranger into your home, learning about other cultures and sharing your Jewish culture with them,” said Nancy. “If you can choose to do one thing to make the world a better place, you will be doing something to honor Sarah.”