Six months after the death of their son, Yaron Lischinsky, and his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim, in a shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum, Daniel and Ruth Lischinsky visited Washington last week to meet with senior administration officials and visit the sites where their son — who, with Milgrim, worked at the Israeli Embassy — lived, worked and, ultimately, died.

Speaking to Jewish Insider during their time in the U.S. capital, the pair reflected on their son’s life and legacy.

“In the beginning it was a big shock for all of us because it was so unexpected — [it was] like an earthquake,” Ruth Lischinsky said of his killing. “Now, we are feeling much more — we are missing him much more. He’s not coming back home. He’s not calling, no message[s], no nothing. So it’s really hard.”

At first, Daniel Lischinsky said, they equated the experience to being on drugs. “We didn’t know where we are and somebody removed the floor beneath us.” But he said they were grateful for the support of their friends, family and community as they grappled with their loss.

He said that his son was a “very sweet boy” and “very gentle, very artistic, very sensible all the time”; he was passionate about soccer as a child and had visions of being a professional player.

“All the time [he was] looking [out] for other people. What are their needs, how are they feeling, approaching the people that are lonely or on the side when you are in big groups,” Daniel Lischinsky continued. “He was a peacemaker. He tried [to make] people understand one [another], talking with the other and not fighting. He was a big fan of the Abraham Accords and he was a peacemaker. He knew that through diplomacy he can reach and he can make achievements.”

It was that passion, his mother said, that led him to pursue diplomatic service and ultimately land in the Israeli Embassy in Washington. She said she’s been struck by the number of people that knew her son in the nation’s capital.

“I have so many opportunities reaching out to different communities,” she said. “He was in contact with so many people. We were really blown away when we realized it now, that so many people knew him and he had contact with them.”

Lischinsky “loved” his time in Washington and ended up “in the right place,” Daniel Lischinsky said.

During their time in Washington, the Lischinskys visited the site where their son and Milgrim were killed, outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

“Seeing the place where they [were] killed was the hardest part, of course,” Ruth Lischinsky said. “But we wanted to go there to somehow connect.”

They said they regretted that they did not have the opportunity to meet Milgrim in person before her death. The young couple had arranged to visit Lischinsky’s parents in Israel days after they were killed, and Lischinsky was planning to propose.

The Lischinskys traveled to Washington both to meet with administration officials involved in fighting antisemitism as well as to meet with Lischinsky and Milgrim’s colleagues at the embassy, and see where the couple had worked together. 

Ruth Lischinsky said she’d been impressed by the dedication to fighting antisemitism expressed by the officials they met with — “they are really serious about it.” 

Daniel Lischinsky said that they came to offer any help they can, but also told the officials that “they need to be stronger, much more strong against antisemitism, and against every crazy one that can be suspicious, like this murderer that took the life of our children. We told them that we don’t want to hear anymore about something like this, not here in Washington, D.C., and not in the States.”

Ruth Lischinsky added that the U.S. media needs to do a better job of accurately reporting what is happening in Israel. Daniel Lischinsky said that inaccurate reporting encourages violent attacks such as the one that killed Lischinsky and Milgrim.

The couple also called for better education, starting early in schools, and for stronger law enforcement response to suspicious individuals like Elias Rodriguez, who has been indicted on murder charges for the shooting.

The Lischinskys, referencing an issue that Milgrim’s parents have also spoken about publicly, expressed shock that protesters were allowed to gather for months directly outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, making so much noise that they were disrupting work inside the building.

The pair have also been traveling to Jewish communities around the world, recently visiting the site of a bombing that targeted the AMIA Jewish community center in Argentina and the Jewish community in Los Angeles.

“We, all the Jewish people, the people in Israel, are praying for you, and you are helping us and praying for us, the Israelis and the people in Israel,” Daniel Lischinsky said. “We are very much encouraged by the support and the love of the Jewish community here in the U.S. It’s really a balsam for our hearts.”

Bob Milgrim, the father of Sarah Milgrim, one of two Israeli Embassy employees who were killed last month at the Capital Jewish Museum, told Jewish leaders on Wednesday that better security at the event where his daughter was slain might have prevented the attack.

Milgrim’s comments were delivered to an audience of Jewish Federations of North America and Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations leaders visiting Washington to advocate to Congress and the administration for increased security funding and other security resources to protect the Jewish community.

“Had there been more security at the event where Sarah and Yaron [Lischinsky] were tragically murdered, had there been more security outside, watching the crowd, I feel that it possibly could have identified the shooter pacing back and forth and possibly disarmed him,” Milgrim said.

Milgrim added that a heavy police presence was necessary when his family was sitting shiva in Kansas following his daughter’s death, including police cars parked in front of the family’s home and a SWAT team a few blocks away.

“It’s unbelievable,” Milgrim said. He noted that his local Jewish community had been targeted in an antisemitic shooting years earlier, in the 2014 attack at the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kan.

Milgrim highlighted that security was an ongoing consideration for his daughter as an embassy employee during her life.

He said that, at one point, the embassy had opted to drive employees home to protect them from protesters camped outside, who threw items at embassy staffers and may have attempted to follow them home.

He said that, later, on multiple occasions, individuals in cars chased his daughter as she left the embassy, screaming anti-Israel slogans at her.

“She would take off running,” Milgrim said. “She didn’t feel so good.”

He urged Jewish leaders to call for “as much security as possible at all events,” including armed security and a visible police presence.

He also reflected on his daughter’s impact on their family, saying that he saw her passion for Judaism and Israel grow as she began preparing for her bat mitzvah, which Sarah had wanted to hold in Israel. 

“That was the spark that started her journey of a love for Israel and Zionism,” Milgrim said. He explained, through tears, that growing up in a small Jewish community in southern Missouri, he “didn’t even know what the word Zionism meant. … [Sarah’s] life’s journey, and her studies, and her work eventually took her to the Israeli Embassy.”

Yaron Lischinsky was laid to rest on Sunday in Beit Zayit, a moshav outside of Jerusalem, after he was killed alongside his partner, Sarah Lynn Milgrim, by a shooter who shouted “Free Palestine” at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington on Wednesday.

Hundreds attended the funeral, according to sources present. The funeral was closed to the media at the family’s request. Among those who attended were Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel and Lischinsky’s direct superior at the embassy, Minister-Counselor for Middle East Affairs Noa Ginosar, who accompanied his body to Israel.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog spoke at the funeral and told Jewish Insider that Lischinsky, a researcher in the embassy’s Middle East Affairs department, was someone “any ambassador would love to have serving in his embassy.”

“He was young, energetic and very talented,” Herzog, who finished his tenure as ambassador in January, said. “He had intellectual curiosity and a lot of knowledge. He was very devoted to his diplomatic work. He was creative and he was really a benefit to the embassy.”

Lischinsky considered taking the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s cadets course, Herzog recalled, which he, along with other senior embassy staff encouraged him to do, believing he had the aptitude to be a successful diplomat.

“We could rely on him, especially during the war,” the former ambassador added.

Herzog said he told Lischinsky’s parents that “unfortunately, tragically, they cannot bring Yaron back, but they should be proud of what he did, what he achieved and the mark he left.”

The former ambassador also spoke about Milgrim, whose funeral is set to be held on Tuesday in Kansas City, near where her family lives. Milgrim’s work at the Israeli Embassy focused on environmental issues and outreach to progressive groups.

“Like [Lischinsky], she was beautiful on the inside and outside,” Herzog said. “It was very painful to see such young, beautiful flowers destroyed at such a young age.” 

Herzog also said that Lischinsky and Milgrim’s murder “exemplifies the challenges facing people representing the state of Israel abroad.”

“They are at the forefront of the diplomatic efforts of the State of Israel, but also face a security challenge. Anybody who served in Washington can attest to the eruption of the crazy threat level after Oct. 7 [2023] and the incitement and brainwashing against Jewish people and the Jewish state, and they were victims of that,” he said.

“We have to continue the battle for the very legitimacy of Israel,” Herzog added. “They can light our path in that direction.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem landed in Israel on Sunday evening, and will participate in a memorial tree-planting ceremony for Lischinsky and Milgrim at the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem on Monday morning.

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.”

“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.