The American Jewish community is facing an “elevated threat” following a surge of violent antisemitic attacks across the country in recent weeks, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned last week. 

In a joint statement, the FBI and DHS called for increased vigilance among Jewish communities, noting the possibility of copycat attacks after a shooting in Washington in which two Israeli Embassy employees were killed and an attack in Boulder, Colo., in which 15 people were injured in a firebombing targeting advocates calling for the release of hostages in Gaza. “The ongoing Israel-HAMAS conflict may motivate other violent extremists and hate crime perpetrators with similar grievances to conduct violence against Jewish and Israeli communities and their supporters. Foreign terrorist organizations also may try to exploit narratives related to the conflict to inspire attacks in the United States,” the agencies warned. 

Jewish organizations that track threats to the community are similarly concerned about online rhetoric following the attacks. 

The Anti-Defamation League highlighted that, one day after the incident in Boulder, videos allegedly recorded by the assailant shortly before the assault began circulated on a Telegram channel called Taufan al-Ummah, which translates to “Flood of the Ummah,” a reference to the Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas’ name for its Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel. The circulated posts celebrated Soliman’s actions. 

The ADL also noted that extremists responded to the attack by spreading conspiracy theories which blamed Jews for the firebombing. Additionally, the Bronx Anti-War Coalition posted a threat shortly after the attack: “May all Zionists live in perpetual fear and paranoia until the day the criminal entity crumbles.” 

“The volume of alerts when our social media web scraping tools highlight postings that may be real threats is happening at a much higher run rate than before D.C. and Boulder,” Mitch Silber, director of the Community Security Initiative, which coordinates security for Jewish communities in the New York region, told Jewish Insider.

“I would say it’s unprecedented,” Silber said of the threat Jews are confronting.  

Silber also called it “unprecedented that American Jews are being targeted because of Israel’s actions,” referring to the Boulder attack, the killing of the two Israeli Embassy staffers, and an attempted arson attack on the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro during the holiday of Passover. The suspect in the Boulder attack told investigators he “wanted to kill all Zionist people” and had planned the attack for a year. The shooter in Washington yelled “Free Palestine” shortly after the attack and the arsonist cited Shapiro’s support for Israel as his motive.   

These attacks, according to Silber, are distinct from other antisemitic incidents that have occurred in recent years, such as the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh — which remains the deadliest attack on Jews on U.S. soil — and the 2022 hostage-taking at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas. 

“The key element that’s different here is the motivation of the attacks,” Silber said. The Tree of Life shooter was motivated by HIAS immigration actions and the Colleyville shooter was looking to get an al-Qaida fighter freed. “Of course, antisemitism is the broad brush,” he continued, “but if you look at recent attacks, they are really attacks against Jewish communities in the U.S. because American Jews are stand-ins for the Israelis that these attackers can’t reach.” 

CSI is responding in “a multitude of different ways,” Silber said. “It’s been a tsunami of requests from organizations.” 

“We’re encouraging any Jewish institution or organization to let us know if they are having an event and that way we can let local law enforcement know,” Silber continued, adding that the group’s new plans include subsidizing armed guards to complement law enforcement at outdoor events hosted by Jewish organizations, as well as expanding its team of analysts searching on social media, surface web and dark web for threats.  

“We have more hands on keyboards to give ourselves a better chance of detecting a Boulder or D.C. before it happens,” Silber said. 

Community Security Service, a group that provides self-defense and safety training to Jewish institutions, also told JI it is beefing up services in light of the recent attacks. 

“Both of the attacks within a two-week timespan have been accompanied by the same kind of slogans that we’ve been hearing on college campuses and yelled at synagogues,” said Richard Priem, CEO of CSS. “That is a new manifestation. Of course we are concerned.” 

Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and ensuing war in Gaza, CSS saw a dramatic increase in Jewish communities requesting security support, which lasted for about a year, according to Priem. “But over the last two weeks, we’ve had dozens of inquiries from organizations,” he said. 

“We are making sure that more quarters of the community use the training that we have for them,” Priem said. “Not just by deploying volunteers for large- or small-scale events but also just giving them guidance and training on how to organize themselves in a way that makes them less vulnerable.”

“We will open some community-wide training sessions in the coming weeks that are open to anyone to give awareness to pre-attack indicators,” he continued. “We have to get out of this mindset that the only way we’re going to solve this is by outsourcing to more companies. We’re not going to get out of this situation unless we as a community start taking ownership and realize we have to do training. We have to pay attention. Whether there’s an increased threat or not, people should do preventative training now.” 

Marc Calcano, a former NYPD officer who runs a New York City-based private security firm with several high-profile Jewish clients, echoed that “the level of terror” American Jews face is “extremely high right now” and warned that the Boulder attack, in particular, could be easily replicated.

“I instruct individuals and large groups but I think it’s time for us to do this on a larger scale, which is creating an institution where many can come, here in New York and other states to learn how to physically defend yourself,” Calcano said.  

The Jewish community can use fear “to its advantage,” he continued. “We have to learn how to protect ourselves.”  

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.”

Vice President JD Vance visited the Israeli Embassy in Washington on Tuesday to pay his respects following last Wednesday’s killing of two staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in the nation’s capital. 

Vance was seen in photos posted on X by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter signing a condolence book at the embassy honoring the memories of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, the two staffers killed in the May 21 attack following a museum event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

“Thank you @VP Vance for coming to the Embassy to honor our dear colleagues and friends, Sarah and Yaron. The care and compassion you and the Trump administration have shown in the wake of this murderous attack are testaments to the enduring friendship between our two countries and peoples, and our mutual battle against terrorism,” Leiter wrote on the social media platform. 

Leiter said at a press conference immediately following the shooting that Lischinsky and Milgrim met while working at the embassy and that Lischinsky planned to propose on an upcoming trip to Jerusalem. 

The alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez, has been 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. The interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, said last week that the 31-year-old Chicago native, who was seen on video shouting “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” after the attack, is eligible for the death penalty. 

A Vance spokesperson did not respond to Jewish Insider’s request for comment on the visit, though the vice president wrote on X the morning after the shooting that, “My heart breaks for Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, who were murdered last night at the Capital Jewish Museum.”

“Antisemitic violence has no place in the United States. We’re praying for their families and all of our friends at the Israeli Embassy, where the two victims worked,” Vance said at the time.

The Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington will reopen on Thursday, eight days after the fatal shooting of two Israeli Embassy staff members outside of the museum. 

The building’s reopening will feature a program to honor the memories of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, who were killed on May 21 while leaving an event at the museum for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

Speakers at the reopening program will include the museum’s leadership, Executive Director Beatrice Gurwitz and Board Chair Chris Wolf, local elected officials including Mayor Muriel Bowser and local clergy. 

“We will gather as a community to remember Yaron and Sarah as our thoughts remain with their loved ones,” Gurwitz said in a statement. “This tragedy will not keep us from telling the story of the greater Washington region’s Jewish history for visitors from around the world.” 

Lischinsky and Milgrim met while working at the embassy. Lischinsky recently purchased an engagement ring, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said following the shooting, and he planned to propose on an upcoming trip to Jerusalem. 

The alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old man from Chicago, entered the building after carrying out the shooting and shouted “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza,” per an eyewitness. He has been 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. He is eligible for the death penalty, according to Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. attorney in Washington. 

The murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim is a reminder “of the dreams that terrorism seeks to destroy every single day,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Monday, standing alongside Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar at a memorial event held in Jerusalem for the young Israeli Embassy staffers who were killed last week in a terror attack outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

“Today, we stand together with profound grief, and our hearts are heavy with the loss of these two radiant souls that we will no longer have with us,” Noem said. “In this moment of sorrow, we also ask that you would gather with us to honor their light and the unbreakable spirit of the Israeli and the American people,” Noem continued. 

Lischinsky, Noem said, “was known for his infectious smile and his unwavering commitment to peace and the vision of the Abraham Accords.” 

“Friends and family shared of Sarah that she glowed with warmth and compassion, dedicating her life to fostering peace and understanding,” Noem said, mentioning ​Milgrim’s work for the Israeli peace-building nonprofit Tech2Peace and her career in public diplomacy. “Their love for each other, a bond that was so strong that Yaron had already chosen a ring to propose to Sarah here in Jerusalem reminds us of the dreams that terrorism seeks to destroy every single day — but we will not let hatred have the final word.” 

“Sarah and Yaron’s lives are a testament to the power of love and service,” Noem said. “They stood for something that was much larger than themselves, and their memory calls us to do the same. They have lived a life of significance that has forever changed us. Together they embody the very best of Israel: courageous, hopeful and dedicated to peace.” 

Sa’ar thanked Noem for her visit to Israel, which he said, “shows solidarity and demonstrates the close relations between our people.” He also thanked the U.S. government for the investigation into the murder of Lischinsky and Milgrim.

U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee also spoke at the event, held at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters, and said that the memories of Lischinsky and Milgrim “will not be taken from any of us, and we should always be mindful that there are people who pay an incredible price to simply be Israelis and Jews.” 

“And it’s why the United States must always stand, and it’s why it’s so very important that we welcome the secretary here to the State of Israel as she comes to offer in person an extraordinary sense — not just of condolences — but also a sense of confidence that the relationship between our nations will never waver, or will it ever falter.”

The remarks by both the American and Israeli officials emphasizing the importance of the strong bonds between the U.S. and Israel come amid recent reports about faltering ties, especially during President Donald Trump’s recent visit to the Middle East, which excluded Israel, and amid the Trump administration’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Noem arrived in Israel on Sunday evening when Jerusalem Day began, marking the city’s reunification in the 1967 Six-Day War, which made her the first U.S. cabinet secretary to mark that day, according to Huckabee. She prayed at the Western Wall and put a note between its cracks.

Noem later met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in which she “expressed unqualified support for the prime minister and the State of Israel,” a Prime Minister’s Office readout stated. 

She also praised the border fence between Israel and Egypt, the PMO stated. The fence, which was completed in 2013, was built, in part, to block African migrants from crossing into Israel from the Sinai peninsula.

Noem also met last night with her counterpart, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in a meeting which was also attended by Netanyahu. According to a statement from Ben-Gvir’s office, the minister thanked Noem for American support for Israel and for Trump’s relocation plan for Gaza. The statement also noted that Noem invited Ben-Gvir for another visit to the U.S. During his last visit, in April, the far-right minister did not meet with Noem, who was in Texas at the time, nor anyone else in the Trump administration.

JI’s Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.

Pro-Israel leaders in the United States on Thursday connected the murder of two Israeli Embassy employees outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington to the anti-Israel advocacy seen on the political extremes throughout the country since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, characterizing it as a culmination of such rhetoric and, in some cases, the failure of some politicians to denounce it.

The suspected shooter, Elias Rodriguez, shouted “free, free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” following the shooting, according to an eyewitness and video from the arrest. He reportedly published a manifesto railing against Israel.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) said that the attack should be a signal to the left that it needs to rethink its rhetoric on Israel and Zionism. He compared the anti-Israel movement in the United States to a “cult” that has been stoked online and is using inherently violent slogans while its members “try to hide behind this idea that it’s free speech to intimidate and terrorize members of the Jewish community.”

He said that too many on the left have failed to call out antisemitism in the anti-Israel movement.

“Why can’t you just call it what it is, and then address and assert the pressure on the aggressor,” which is Hamas,” Fetterman said. “I can’t even imagine having to live with that ever-present antisemitism and what? Why can’t people just acknowledge and call that what it is?”

Fetterman predicted that the same elements of the left that have supported Luigi Mangione, the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, will also rally behind Rodriguez.

“What part of my party does this come from where it’s like, we try to defend or try to justify assassinating an executive in broad daylight or … somebody [who] guns down” two people at a Jewish event, Fetterman asked incredulously.

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter connected the shooting to the anti-Israel protests seen on college campuses and elsewhere in the country.

“The point of the matter is that on campuses around this country, where ideas — these are the temples of ideas — where smart ideas, intelligent ideas, moral ideas, truthful ideas, are supposed to be taught, we have useful idiots running around in support of the destruction of Israel,” Leiter said at a press conference.

“This is done in the name of a political agenda to eradicate the State of Israel,” Leiter added. “The State of Israel is now fighting a war on seven fronts. This is the eighth front, a war to demonize, delegitimize, to eradicate the right of the State of Israel to exist.”

He also connected rising global antisemitism to countries like France that have spoken out against Israel and are moving to recognize a Palestinian state.

A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations, in a statement, described the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

William Daroff, the CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said on X, “There is a direct line between demonizing Israel, tolerating antisemitic hate speech in the public square, and violent action.” 

“We are now witnessing the deadly consequences of months of relentless antisemitic incitement — amplified by international organizations and political leaders across the globe — since the horrors of October 7,” Daroff said. “This is not a debate over policy; it is the mainstreaming of hatred, and its consequences are measured in blood.”

Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said on X the attack was “the deadly consequence of normalizing Jew-hatred.”

“Since October 7, antisemitic attacks have surged — fueled by violent chants to ‘globalize the intifada’ and slurs like ‘dirty Zionist,’” Gottheimer said. 

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), highlighting a tweet from a local anti-Israel group that praised the attack, said that, “Violence is not a bug but a feature of virulent Anti-Zionism.”

Arizona state Rep. Alma Hernandez called out a series of progressive lawmakers, saying, “spare us the fake outrage.”

“Two Israeli diplomats were murdered in cold blood—and you dare act concerned? Y’all have spent years fueling the hate and antisemitism that’s now exploding across America. Don’t pretend to care,” Hernandez continued, in an X post. “You are constantly surrounded by keffiyehs and “Free Palestine” and have pushed rhetoric that’s radicalized Americans into thinking murdering Jews and harassing them in the streets will somehow “liberate” Palestine and end the so-called genocide. No thanks.”

“We don’t want prayers from politicians who support individuals and organizations that promote this hate and who are being actively supported by said individuals and organizations while they run for office,” Hernandez added.

“You can’t support chants of ‘Globalize the Intifada’ and then be ‘appalled’ when people act it out,” Georgia state Rep. Esther Panitch said on X in response to a statement on the attack from Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) that did not acknowledge that the victims worked for the Israeli embassy and condemned “violence” broadly. Panitch also criticized other progressive Democrats who issued statements on the attack.

Panitch added, “Fascinating that those who campaigned against the Jewish community’s right to define their own experience of antisemitism are the ones who call ‘Globalizing the Intifada’ peaceful protests. The same ones who can’t say the word antisemitism in their posts.”

Jordan Acker, the University of Michigan regent who has been repeatedly targeted with antisemitic harassment and vandalism, drew a direct line between those incidents and demonstrations on the University of Michigan’s campus, and the Wednesday night murders.

“This isn’t protest. It’s a threat. This is what antisemitism looks like — and it’s escalating,” Acker said. “This is part of a terrifying trend: Jews in America being hunted, harassed, and attacked for being visibly Jewish — for existing in public. When we call it antisemitism, we’re told we’re overreacting. That our fear is political. That our pain is inconvenient. We’ve been gaslit for 18 months. Enough.”

He also called out progressives directly, saying “antisemitism isn’t any less dangerous when it comes wrapped in ‘progressive’ language.”

In response to the attack, some of the most prominent far-left critics of Israel on Capitol Hill have offered what many in the Jewish community have seen as half-hearted and inadequate responses.

“My heart breaks for the loved ones of the victims of last night’s attack in D.C. Nobody deserves such terrible violence. Everyone in our communities deserves to live in safety and in peace,” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said, linking to an article highlighting that the victims, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, were Israeli Embassy workers, but not noting their backgrounds or the circumstances of the shooting in her own post.

Omar noted that the shooting took place at the Capital Jewish Museum but did not acknowledge the victims’ backgrounds and condemned violence broadly.

“I am appalled by the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum last night. Holding the victims, their families, and loved ones in my thoughts and prayers,” Omar said. “Violence should have no place in our country.”

A coalition of 46 Jewish organizations issued a joint statement on Thursday urging additional action from the federal government to address antisemitism in the United States following the killing of two Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, and particularly expanding funding for a variety of programs to protect the Jewish community.

“The rising level of anti-Jewish incitement, which inevitably leads to violent acts like the one in Washington, DC yesterday, requires governmental action commensurate with the level of danger,” the letter reads.

The demands include a call to massively expand funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, from its current level of $274.5 million, in addition to $200 million in supplemental funding also expected to be released soon. The new request is double the $500 million request from Jewish groups in the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks and the request recently submitted by a bipartisan coalition of House members.

The letter further said the NSGP process should be “made more flexible and accessible,” describing it currently as “cumbersome and lack[ing] transparency.”

The groups also called for additional funding for security at Jewish institutions, for the FBI to expand its intelligence operations and counter-domestic terrorism operations and for local law enforcement to be empowered to protect Jewish establishments.

“The demands on local and state law enforcement far outpace their capacity to meet the need, which disproportionately affects targeted communities like the American Jewish community,” the letter says, of the need for additional funding for state and local law enforcement.

The groups also urged the federal government to “aggressively prosecute antisemitic hate crimes and extremist violence in accordance with the law” and to hold online platforms including social media and gaming sites “accountable for amplification of antisemitic hate, glorification of terrorism, extremism, disinformation, and incitement.”

The letter describes the murders as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

Signatories to the letter include major national Jewish organizations including the American Jewish Committee, Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Jewish Federations of North America, Anti-Defamation League and AIPAC, as well as groups representing a wide political and religious cross section of the Jewish community.

“The perfect diplomat.” 

That’s how a former colleague and friend of Yaron Lischinsky remembered him on Thursday, the day after the Israeli Embassy staff member was shot dead alongside his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim, outside of the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington as the couple was leaving an event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

“He was diligent and went to DC to pursue his dream,” Klil, who interned with Lischinsky, 29, at the Abba Eban Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations at Reichman University in Herzliya, Israel, in 2020 and requested to be identified only by her first name, told Jewish Insider. The internship centered around developing a platform for diplomats to stay connected online during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.  

The two had an instant connection “because we both studied Asian studies and we both focused on Japan,” Klil recalled. “We spoke a lot about Israel and Asia.” 

“His English was perfect,” she said. “I started the internship a bit before him and when they brought him in I was like ‘OK, he’s going to be the perfect diplomat.’ I wish I could tell his family that he was a great guy.”  

The pair mostly lost touch after the internship, when Lischinsky — a Christian who was raised in Germany — moved to Washington to work at the Israeli Embassy after pursuing a masters’ degree at Reichman. But their interest in Japan kept the two connected via social media, where they would share cherry blossom photos — Lischinsky’s came each spring when the Japanese trees bloomed on the Tidal Basin in Washington. Klil shared her cherry blossom photos from London, where she was living after the internship. “We had a shared experience around that,” she said. 

Recently, Lischinsky’s Instagram posts featured more than cherry blossoms.

Klil took note of the photos he had been posting, posing together with Milgrim. The couple met while both working at the embassy. “Just looking at the photos from afar,” Klil said, she had a feeling the relationship was serious. Lischinsky purchased a ring earlier this week, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said on Wednesday night. The two victims were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem.

Milgrim, 26, was remembered by a former colleague and friend as “bright, helpful, smart and passionate.” 

“Sarah was committed to working towards peace,” said Jake Shapiro, who worked with Milgrim in 2022-23 at Teach2Peace, an organization dedicated to building peace between Palestinians and Israelis. 

“One small bright spot in all of this is seeing both Israelis and Palestinians that knew Sarah sending their condolences and remembering her together,” Shapiro told JI. That gives him hope that a “more peaceful reality is possible.” 

Milgrim, who was Jewish and originally from Kansas, moved to Washington to receive a master’ s degree from American University. She graduated in 2023 with a degree in International Affairs. “I am deeply saddened by this senseless act,” Jonathan Alger, the university’s president, said in a statement. “Sarah was only beginning her life’s journey, and it is anguishing that her light was taken away because of hate.” 

“Antisemitism is a scourge that must be stopped,” Alger said. 

Growing up, Milgrim was active in the small, tightknit Jewish community of Overland Park, Kan. In high school, she participated in the Orthodox Union-run Jewish youth group NCSY’s Jewish Student Union network of public school clubs. “Sarah was one of ours. And we will not forget her,” Micah Greenland, director of NCSY, said in a statement. 

“We were privileged to witness Sarah’s passion for Israel and the Jewish people firsthand through her involvement in the Senator Jerry Moran Israel Scholars program,” Greenland said, referring to the Kansas senator. 

Those who knew both of the young victims echoed that the theme of Wednesday night’s event — “Turning Pain Into Purpose,” discussing humanitarian aid initiatives, including in Gaza, and working to counter the rising tide of “us versus them” narratives — was among the topics the two were most passionate about. 

Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told JI that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old man from Chicago, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. 

Siegel recounted that she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel, who attended the evening with her girlfriend who is not Jewish and was attending a Jewish event for the first time, said that she felt the man was suspicious. He was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, according to Siegel who engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.

After Siegel said that, she said the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red keffiyeh before being detained by police. Security footage later confirmed that the man was Rodriguez, the shooter. 

Jewish communities around the U.S. remained on high alert Thursday. Several D.C.-based Jewish organizations directed their employees to work from home. In New York, the state with the largest Jewish population, Gov. Kathy Hochul said enhanced security measures were implemented. New York City Mayor Eric Adams ordered increased NYPD presence at Jewish sites across the city, calling the murders “exactly what it means to globalize the intifada.” 

Jewish Insider’s senior congressional correspondent Marc Rod contributed reporting. 

Antisemitic violence struck at the heart of the nation’s capital on Wednesday evening when an assailant shot and killed two Israeli embassy employees outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee.

“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” embassy spokesperson Tal Naim Cohen said in a statement. “We have full faith in law enforcement authorities on both the local and federal levels to apprehend the shooter and protect Israel’s representatives and Jewish communities throughout the United States.”

Officials said there was no ongoing threat to public safety and that a suspect had been arrested.

“American Jewish Committee (AJC) can confirm that we hosted an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. this evening,” AJC CEO Ted Deutch said in a statement. “We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue. At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.”

President Donald Trump said in a statement, “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said that a man and woman were killed in the incident. Israeli Ambassador Michael Leiter said that the two victims were a young couple and embassy employees who were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem — the man purchased a ring earlier this week.

Eyewitness Paige Siegel, who was a guest at the event, told Jewish Insider that she heard two sets of multiple shots ring out, and then an individual, who police have since identified as suspected shooter Elias Rodriguez, entered the building appearing disoriented and panicked, seconds after the shooting ended. She said security allowed the man in, as well as two other women separately.

Siegel said she spoke to the man, asking him if he had been shot. He appeared panicked and was mumbling and repeatedly told bystanders to call the police. Siegel said that she felt the man was suspicious.

JoJo Drake Kalin, a member of AJC’s DC Young Professional Board and an organizer of the event, also told JI the man appeared disheveled and out of breath when he entered the building. Kalin assumed he had been a bystander to the shooting who needed assistance and she handed him a glass of water.

Siegel said that the man was sitting in the building in a state of distress for approximately 10 to 15 minutes, and she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum.

After Siegel said that, she said the man started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red Keffiyeh. She said that an officer, who had already arrived, detained the man and took him outside. She said that she subsequently saw security footage of Rodriguez shooting the female and identified the shooter as the same individual. Kalin said that some attendees stayed for several hours at the museum into the night to be debriefed by police.

A short video obtained by JI showed an individual in the lobby of the museum chanting “Free, free Palestine” being detained by police and removed from the building.

A video obtained by Jewish Insider shows the suspected shooter, identified by police as Elias Rodriguez, in the lobby of the Capital Jewish Museum chanting “free, free Palestine” as he is detained by police and removed from the building.

Full story: https://t.co/ZGZBj9agQx pic.twitter.com/zZUbTvovFm

— Jewish Insider (@J_Insider) May 22, 2025

Smith said in a press conference that the suspect, Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, opened fire on a group of four outside the museum, and then entered the building and was detained by event security. Smith said that Rodriguez, once in custody, implied that he carried out the shooting and chanted “free, free Palestine.”

Smith said Rodriguez had been pacing outside the event before the altercation.

Leiter said that he had spoken to President Donald Trump, who vowed that the administration would do everything it can to fight antisemitism and demonization and delegitimization of Israel.

“We’ll stand together tall and firm and confront this moral depravity without fear,” Leiter said.

Smith said that police would coordinate with local Jewish organizations to ensure sufficient security. She said police had not received any intelligence warning of the attack.

Mayor Muriel Bowser said, “we will not tolerate antisemitism,” and said the city would continue to assist Jewish organizations with security grants.

FBI officials and Attorney General Pam Bondi and interim U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro joined the response alongside D.C. police.

“We are a resilient people. The people of Israel are a resilient people. The people of the United States of America are a resilient people. Together, we won’t be afraid. Together we will stand and overcome moral depravity of people who think they’re going to achieve political gains through murder,” Leiter said. 

According to an invitation to the event viewed by JI, the event planned to discuss efforts to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East and North Africa, including in Gaza.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, described the shooting as a “depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told JI, “I’ve been informed of the tragic shooting that occurred outside of the Capitol Jewish Museum tonight in Washington D.C. We are monitoring the situation as more details become known and lifting up the victim’s families in our prayers.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a post, “This sickening shooting seems to be another horrific instance of antisemitism which as we know is all too rampant in our society.”

Richard Priem, the CEO of the Community Security Service, told eJewishPhilanthropy that there are still “so many unknowns” about the shooting, namely if it was a sophisticated attack specifically targeting Israeli Embassy staff or an attack more generally against the Jewish event itself. In any case, the organization called for “increased situational awareness” at Jewish institutions going forward, particularly ahead of Shabbat.

“Anytime there’s an attack, certain people get activated and think, ’Now’s the time,’” Priem said. “But we don’t know yet if there might be a direct correlated threat.”

eJewishPhilanthropy’s Judah Ari Gross contributed reporting