An emotional memorial ceremony at the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Monday marking the one-year anniversary of the murders of Israeli Embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky was filled with many tears, some anger and even a few laughs.

Milgrim’s father, Robert, told an assembled crowd of dignitaries, Jewish leaders and D.C. staffers that he was saddened not only by the death of his daughter but by the ways in which her death exemplifies the challenges facing every Jewish community.

“I’m sad, not only because of the tragic loss of our daughter, but I’m sad due to the state of affairs in which Jews live today,” Robert Milgrim said. “We now live in a world where every Jewish institution needs to be protected by an armed guard wearing a bulletproof vest.”

He said that, in the wake of Milgrim’s death, “we have learned the true meaning of what it is to be a Jew, and even though we are scattered across many lands, we are all part of the same family. This family has provided us with the support, with the support that we need now, and for that I say, thank you to everyone here.”

He said that those gathered should honor Milgrim’s work by “doubling down on full, unapologetic bridge-building.”

Milgrim’s mother, Nancy, recounted her daughter’s upbringing as a member of a small Jewish community in Kansas and her growing love for Israel through multiple visits to the country.

“Sarah believed in the work she was doing at the embassy. She believed in bringing peace to the land she loved, and most of all, she loved Yaron,” Nancy Milgrim said. She added that, in spite of the tragedy, she has learned so much about her daughter and connected with those in her life in a way she might not otherwise have the opportunity to.

“Out of this tragic loss, old friendships were renewed and new friendships have been born. Seeds have been planted for many ways to honor Sarah’s memory and continue the work she was doing,” she continued.

Lischinsky’s father, Daniel, thanked the Israeli Embassy for the opportunities it gave the couple “to develop, to show their abilities, to bring them to life. Thank you to each one of you, the friends of them, for your friendship for them, loving them.”

He also thanked Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter for preserving their memory, keeping a photo of the couple in a prominent spot in his office visible in weekly videos he makes.

“We are going through difficult times in Israel and difficult times around the world, and it’s so important, like Bob and Nancy said, to be together, to be a community,” Daniel Lischinsky said. “We feel your support, we feel your love.”

Two friends and colleagues of the couple, Catherine Szkop and Abbie Talmoud, who were present the night of the shooting and narrowly escaped being killed themselves, also addressed the gathered audience.

Szkop was visibly angry during portions of her remarks discussing the “human safari that unfolded” on the sidewalk of the Capital Jewish Museum. She emphasized that it could have happened to anyone present.

“Every single person in this room should think of themselves as passing through this horrific attack. Indeed, it could have happened to you. It could have been your parents, your children, your spouse, your siblings, your grandparents and your friends mourning your death,” she said. “Instead, it was Sarah and Yaron, and it could have very well been Abbie and me too.”

Szkop said that she refuses to “diminish the human nature of those who actively choose to commit these acts of violence” by calling them “idiots, animals or monsters,” which “gives them an excuse or perhaps, even more troubling, the permission to pursue such heinous acts.”

“From the back of Yad Vashem, at the end of the museum, you can see the cemetery where Yaron is buried, while simultaneously hearing from the tour guide how we have moved beyond the times of the Holocaust and the murderous antisemitism of the Nazis and their collaborators,” she continued. “I urge you to reflect on that. Are we really so sure?”

Talmoud offered some moments of levity, describing the start of Milgrim and Lischinsky’s relationship when they first met on the National Mall during the March for Israel in November 2023 and how Lischinsky maneuvered to get Milgrim’s number to send a photo of them together at the rally. She spoke of their lives together, including their shared love of Milgrim’s dog, Annie, and their first Valentine’s Day as a couple.

“Anti-Zionism denies the Jewish people’s right to exist in their homeland. It is antisemitism, and because of anti-Zionism, my friends were murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C., in the name of Palestine,” Talmoud said. “Society has deemed this acceptable and moral. We must change that.”

Leo Terrell, a senior Department of Justice official focused on antisemitism, also broke down in tears when discussing the shooting. He invited his chief of staff, Sarah Goldman, to join him on stage, who was also in tears.

“This memorial has a personal impact on me, because my chief of staff and I were at the crime scene, where we witnessed the aftermath of this murder,” Terrell said. “We are now more committed than ever to fight antisemitism. To the family members: I will never say no to you. Ever.”

Terrell, who said he’s grown close with Lischinsky’s parents in the past year, tightly embraced the parents of both former embassy staffers.

Noa Ginosar, minister counselor for Middle Eastern Affairs at the embassy and Lischinsky’s former supervisor, said that she’s struggled most in moments where she can “so clearly imagine the questions [Yaron] would be asking, and the excitement he would feel as he would try to make sense of it all, and where it could lead.”

“There are still moments when I want his advice, moments when I walk into the office and instinctively expect him to walk through the door, moments when I find myself wanting to sit down with him and talk through a complicated development in the Middle East, or hear about a hidden corner of Washington that only he seemed to know about,” she continued.

Sawsan Natour-Hassan, the minister for public diplomacy and Milgrim’s former supervisor, said that she is still grappling with the loss of the couple, and said she went back to her last WhatsApp messages with Milgrim.

“You were always one step ahead. You had a rare ability to deal with the most complex and difficult challenges, yet still make room for kindness, optimism, and soft diplomacy,” Natour-Hassan said of Milgrim. “More than anything, you gave people hope that tomorrow could be a better day. You were a bright spot in Israel’s darkest and most desolate things.”

Their final message, Natour-Hassan said, was a photo of Milgrim smiling at the AJC event, between Szkop and Talmoud.

Natour-Hassan, who is Druze, also compared Milgrim to another Sarah, a “revered female figure, a righteous Sarah who stands as a symbol of wisdom, faith, peacemaking and resilience” in the Druze religion.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Sa’ar both addressed the gathering in prerecorded remarks. 

“In the way of blind hatred, they were not targeted as Sarah and Yaron,” Herzog said. “They were reduced to blank symbols, guilty by association, stripped of their individuality and humanity because of their connection to Israel and the Jewish people. Such is the nature of hatred, such is the culture of glorifying death, destruction, and antisemitism towards Israel.”

He called on everyone to follow their legacy of “peace, dialogue and humanity.”

Authorities in the District of Columbia announced on Thursday that they filed federal hate crime charges against Elias Rodriguez, the suspect in the fatal shooting in May of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington. 

The indictment on nine counts, filed on Wednesday, includes a charge relating to a hate crime resulting in death and comes more than two months after Rodriguez was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, the murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a violent crime for the May 21 attack. 

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday morning about the new charges, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said that the indictment was a continuation of “our journey to seek justice for not only two, but four victims of this horrific crime, which has had enormous consequences and repercussions, not just in the District, but nationwide and worldwide, not only affecting these victims and their families, but opening old wounds and revictimizing victims of past antisemitism.”

“A D.C. grand jury has charged in this indictment two hate crimes, alleging that he murdered Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim because of his bias against the people of Israel. He demonstrated this hatred through his words, ‘Death to Israel,’ and his violent actions against Yaron and Sarah and their co-workers from the Israeli Embassy,” Pirro said.

Pirro, who said in May that Rodriguez was eligible for the death penalty while vowing to prosecute the case to the fullest extent of the law, said on Thursday that the indictment “begins the statutory process on whether to seek the death penalty.” 

“This is a weighty decision. It takes time. There will be a rigorous process, after which the capital case section in the attorney general’s office will advise the attorney general and the attorney general herself will make a decision regarding whether or not this office will seek death against Elias Rodriguez,” Pirro said. 

“We are starting the process. We’ve made no decision yet,” she added of seeking the death penalty, again noting that Attorney General Pam Bondi “will determine whether or not to authorize my office to seek death.”

Pirro added that Lischinsky and Milgrim’s parents, with whom she’s been in contact, had been made aware that “they will have an opportunity and a right to put their input into what decision is ultimately made” on if the Justice Department will seek capital punishment. 

Rodriguez will appear in federal court in D.C. on Friday for a hearing on the broader indictment against him, where more details about the new charges are expected to be discussed. 

The new filing alleges that Rodriguez flew from Chicago, Ill., to Washington the day before the attack with “a Heckler and Koch VP9 SK 9mm semi-automatic handgun packed in his luggage,” and wrote in a document dated that same day that, “Those of us against the genocide take satisfaction in arguing that the perpetrators and abettors have forfeited their humanity.” 

He purchased a ticket the next day to the reception taking place later that evening for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee in the nation’s capital.

Lischinsky and Milgrim, a couple who worked at the Israeli Embassy, were shot at point-blank range while leaving the museum event. Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago native, was seen on video shouting “free Palestine” after the attack. A witness to the attack told Jewish Insider that Rodriguez also shouted, “I did it for Gaza.”

In addition to Lischinsky and Milgrim, Rodriguez also assaulted two individuals, referred to in the indictment as C.S. and A.T., “with the intent to kill a person,” Pirro said on Thursday.

Reid Davis, the special agent in charge for the FBI Washington field office’s criminal division, said investigators believe Rodriguez acted alone and was “motivated by anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian ideology.”

Davis said that the “FBI investigation to date indicates that the subject acted alone with the intent to commit a violent act in the District of Columbia. Based on his writings and communications, we believe he was a lone-wolf actor motivated by anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian ideology, with the goal of conducting a mass shooting to call attention to his political agenda.”

The indictment also claims that Rodriguez expressed support for violence against Israelis in correspondence on social media prior to the attack. It states that he sent a direct message through a social media platform in May of 2024 that stated: “please please please god please vaporize every Israeli 18 and above so these kids have some chance at becoming human,” according to the indictment.

Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for civil rights, said at Thursday’s presser that her office, which oversees the certification of any federal hate crime charges, moved to do so “in this case with alacrity.” 

“The Civil Rights Division is committed to ensuring that every community in these United States is safe from violence, intimidation and discrimination, as in this case,” Dhillon said. “This indictment reflects our ongoing commitment to hold these criminals accountable, and we will continue to relentlessly pursue justice for Yaron and Sarah, their families and their communities.”

“I hope this beginning of this process brings some comfort to the many people in this community who have approached the Department of Justice and expressed their deep concern for their safety. I think no one can claim that this is not a serious problem here in our district right now, and it is embarrassing as an American to see that,” she continued.

Pirro, who was confirmed by the Senate to her role last week after being appointed by President Donald Trump in early May, vowed in closing remarks that “violence against anyone in this District will not be tolerated, especially violence which has hate at its core and is the genesis of violence.”

“The president put me here to do a job, to clean up the district, to make sure that crime doesn’t overshadow this phenomenal city, our nation’s capital. I have, throughout my career, fought antisemitism for 32 years as a prosecutor and a judge. I fight hate crimes with a vengeance,” Pirro said, referencing her tenure as Westchester County, N.Y., district attorney.

D.C. Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Ramey J. Kyle, who leads the Investigative Services Bureau, said that the new charges emphasized their “collective commitment” to ensuring Rodriguez faces the maximum penalty for these murders.

“The charges unveiled here this morning underscore our collective commitment to ensuring Rodriguez faces the maximum punishment possible,” Kyle said.

News of the indictment was well received by leading Jewish organizations.

The American Jewish Committee said in a statement that Milgrim and Lischinsky’s “young lives and full potential were horrifically stolen,” calling their murders a “deliberate and heinous act” that was “a deeply personal tragedy for their families and for the entire AJC community.” 

“It was an assault on the values we hold as Americans, as Jews, and as members of a shared society. Their families deserve justice and healing. We are grateful for the vigor with which the Department of Justice has proceeded thus far, and are confident that it will diligently continue its pursuit of justice for this murderous hate crime,” the statement read. 

“The May 21 shooting outside the Museum was motivated by hatred but we will not allow acts of terrorism to silence or isolate us. We honor the memories of Sarah and Yaron by remembering their values, their work, and the life they should have lived together and by redoubling our efforts to ensure that the Jewish people and the State of Israel are safe and thriving and to build a world grounded in respect, safety, and justice,” it continued. 

The Anti-Defamation League wrote in a social media post that they “welcome these charges as an important step toward justice for the families of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim and the greater Jewish community. May their memories always be for a blessing.”

In response to the shooting that killed two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum last week, a bipartisan group of 46 House members wrote to President Donald Trump on Friday urging him to support expanded funding for key security programs in his full budget request to Congress, expected as soon as Friday afternoon.

While presidential budget requests are non-binding and are frequently modified by Congress, Trump’s requests are likely to be influential in the GOP-controlled Congress. And the appeals made by the lawmakers, in some cases, constitute calls for Trump to walk back funding cuts he proposed in the high-level budget toplines — known as a “skinny budget” — he submitted to Congress earlier this month.

Highlighting the “sharp rise in threats to the Jewish community,” the lawmakers — most of them Democrats — said that it is “imperative that the federal government take the necessary steps to increase funding for enhanced security measures” and “ensure that the Jewish community is equipped with the necessary tools to prevent loss of life in the case of an attack.”

The legislation calls on Trump to support $500 million in funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program, the same funding level that bipartisan groups of House and Senate members have urged Appropriations Committee leaders to support, calling the program “one of the most effective and critical programs for protecting the Jewish community and all faith-based communities from attack.” Jewish groups have called for funding to be increased to $1 billion.

Trump, in his “skinny budget,” had called for a reduction in funding for non-emergency grants at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a category that includes NSGP, but did not put forward a specific request for the program itself. In the past, presidents have not always made any specific funding requests for the NSGP, even in their more detailed budget outlines.

The letter outlines a series of examples that “demonstrate the direct return on investment for communities under threat” from the NSGP,  highlighting incidents in which security upgrades paid for by the program likely saved lives by stopping shooting attacks.

The lawmakers also called for Trump to “explore opportunities,” in collaboration with lawmakers, to provide an additional dedicated fund to allow faith-based organizations to hire security officers.

“Although Jewish institutions can use the NSGP to hire additional security personnel, the majority of Jewish institutions have either not been recipients of these grants or cannot afford the additional costs incurred,” the letter reads. “In light of recent events, it is more clear than ever that Jewish institutions are in desperate need of additional personnel support.”

The letter calls on Trump to support increased funding for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Trump called for a $545 million cut to the FBI’s budget in his “skinny budget”, pledging that the FBI would focus on counterintelligence and counterterrorism and that it would eliminate “duplicative intelligence activities.”

The letter emphasizes the FBI’s role in domestic terrorism investigations, which have been on the rise, and intelligence gathering and the FBI’s responsibility to report to Congress on domestic terrorism threats.

It calls for increased Department of Justice grants for local law enforcement to ensure that hate crimes are properly reported to local and federal law enforcement agencies, and specifically for grant programs to counter hate crimes “to ensure that antisemitic hate crimes are addressed and prosecuted in a timely manner” and their extent is fully understood. 

The “skinny budget” called for cutting $1 billion in DOJ grant programs, including “programs that focus on so-called hate crimes in clear violation of the First Amendment.”

The letter was led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) and co-signed by Reps. Max Miller (R-OH), Haley Stevens (D-MI), Brittany Pettersen (D-CO), Laura Gillen (D-NY), John Larson (D-CT), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Nikema Williams (D-GA), David Scott (D-GA), Wesley Bell (D-MO), Shri Thanedar (D-MI), Dina Titus (D-NV), Donald Norcross (D-NJ), Susie Lee (D-NV), Andre Carson (D-IN), Shontel Brown (D-OH), Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Lizzie Fletcher (D-TX), Greg Landsman (D-OH), Frederica Wilson (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Janelle Bynum (D-OR), Madeleine Dean (D-PA), Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Jerry Nadler (D-NY), LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), Ted Lieu (D-CA), George Latimer (D-NY), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Julie Johnson (D-TX), Julia Brownley (D-CA), Marilyn Strickland (D-WA), Darren Soto (D-FL), Chris Pappas (D-NH), Brendan Boyle (D-PA), Bill Keating (D-MA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Benny Thompson (D-MI), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), David Kustoff (R-TN) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC).

Miller and Kustoff, who are both Jewish, are the only Republican signatories.

WASHINGTON — As visitors entered the Capital Jewish Museum on Thursday morning, open for the first time after an antisemitic attack killed two Israeli Embassy staffers steps from its doors last week, they walked past a makeshift memorial to Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky before security guards wanded them down and checked their bags. 

The museum might be reopening, but its staff — and the broader Washington Jewish community — now feel a heaviness that did not exist last week, when the museum was on the cusp of unveiling a major new exhibit about LGBTQ Jews ahead of the World Pride Festival next month. The presence of police officers and heightened security precautions in the newly reopened space were stark reminders of the violence perpetrated by a radicalized gunman who said he killed the two young people “for Gaza.” 

A brief ceremony marking the museum’s reopening began with a cantor leading the crowd in singing songs for peace. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser pledged to continue to support the Jewish community and called on all Washingtonians to do the same.

“It is not up to the Jewish community to say, ‘Support us.’ It is up to all of us to denounce antisemitism in all forms,” Bowser told the several dozen people at the event. 

Bowser, who was instrumental in the creation of the museum, which opened in 2023, urged people in the local community to visit.

“One of my messages to our community here in D.C. is for people of all faiths to keep showing up for the Jewish community and to keep showing up for the Capital Jewish Museum,” she continued. “Spaces like this that teach us history, that allow us to connect, inspire, reflect people coming together, of all backgrounds, faiths, ages, coming from different places in the world and different places in the city, can talk about important ideas and ways that we move together for a better collective future.”

A group of local faith leaders — a rabbi, an imam and two ministers — addressed the crowd, discussing their faiths’ teachings against violence and reflecting on the legacy of Lischinsky and Milgrim, who were killed as they left an American Jewish Committee event for young diplomats. Throughout the ceremony, speakers said the way to fight such hate is with understanding, built at institutions like the Capital Jewish Museum. 

“This reopening is exactly what our city, our country and our world needs. To keep telling our stories, who we are as a people, to have us be known, what our values are, what we are to the city, what we contribute and the intricacies of what make us who we are — not only so that we don’t shrink from fear, but also because it is the path to better understanding each other,” said Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, senior rabbi at Washington’s Adas Israel Congregation. 

Imam Talib Shareef, president and imam of Masjid Muhammad, described the reopening of the museum as an “invitation to embrace our shared, original identity as fruits of the first human, Adam, from which came the many wonderful, beautiful, diverse expressions of human life that have contributed to the strength and unity of our nation.” 

To close the event, the museum’s executive director, Beatrice Gurwitz, took to the podium, visibly shaken. 

“Last week’s antisemitic attack cannot be our last chapter,” Gurwitz said. “So we reopen today, and we dedicate ourselves to honor Yaron and Sarah and their commitment to repairing the world and building bridges, and we take strength in all of you as we go forward in fulfilling that mission.” 

Attendees finished the event by milling about the museum, including its newest exhibit, “LGBTJews in the Federal City,” which tells the story of Washington’s queer Jewish community. Items on display reflected the community’s struggle for inclusion — within the broader Jewish community, and also within the federal government, where workers were penalized for being gay during much of the 20th century. 

One Washington Post newspaper clipping from 1979, displayed in the exhibit, reported on the formation of Bet Mishpachah, “a synagogue for homosexuals.” The synagogue’s decision to participate in the article was described as a risk — putting its leaders at personal and professional peril. 

More than four decades later, Joshua Maxey, executive director of Bet Mishpachah, delivered remarks to the crowd assembled at the museum on Thursday morning. He described Milgrim as a “passionate advocate” who “made it her mission to ensure that LGBTQ voices were heard and celebrated within our local Jewish community.”

“She made people feel seen, valued and embraced,” Maxey continued. “She approached her work not just as a job, but as a calling. She was a peace broker in the truest sense, someone who lived out our values, our Jewish values of tikkun olam, or repairing the world.”