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

The Trump administration’s moves to cut billions in federal funding from colleges and universities and detain and deport foreign students have sparked fierce debate in the Jewish community in recent months, and opened fault lines among some who see the actions as necessary to fight antisemitism and others who argue that they’re an overreach.

The American Jewish Committee is trying to take a more nuanced approach, the organization’s CEO Ted Deutch told Jewish Insider in an interview at AJC’s Washington office this week ahead of the group’s annual Global Forum conference, which starts this weekend.

Deutch emphasized that AJC is a “fiercely nonpartisan organization,” which means it must sometimes “hold competing thoughts” so that it can “speak with clarity about what we believe is in the best interests of the Jewish community” and represent “the vast middle of the Jewish community.”

He called that approach not only proper, but necessary.

“There are campuses [where] so many of the challenges should have been addressed by universities, and weren’t. We’ve been clear that it’s really important that the administration, that the president, is making this a priority,” Deutch said. “At the same time, as we’ve said, due process matters and obviously our democratic principles matter as well, we have to be able to both express appreciation and, when necessary, express concern.”

He said that AJC does not and has never taken an all-or-nothing approach to any administration — being either fully supportive or fully opposed to all actions it takes — and that it is continuing to hold fast to that principle: “We are working with the administration and giving them credit where due and we are offering our thoughtful criticism also, when necessary.”

Deutch cited examples from both the Reagan and Obama administrations that he said demonstrated this principle.

“We’re not willing to give up on the idea that, in advocating for the Jewish community, we can continue to leave partisanship out of it, focus on the concerns and needs of the Jewish community and work with an administration as closely as we can to help them succeed in ways that are beneficial to the entirety of the Jewish community,” he said.

In both the revocation of federal funding from universities and the deportation of alleged anti-Israel agitators, Deutch said that due process must be “front and center.” 

On federal funding, Deutch noted that there are provisions in federal law that allow for the revocation of funding and said that the prior administration also expressed willingness to slash funding, but that such moves have not actually occurred for decades.

“It’s really important that the funding cuts be done in a way that will have the most impact in addressing the challenges of antisemitism and that other issues not be conflated,” he said. 

He added that funding cuts should be used as a tool to ensure that schools make necessary changes to protect Jewish students, such as changes to their protest and student conduct policies, and that funds should be cut in the context of negotiations with universities if they fail to take action.

“When the hammer is dropped before those conversations take place, then people go to their corners,” Deutch said. “What we are advocating for is for every university to do everything that it can to help keep Jewish students safe … It’s how we get them to do it, and making sure that when they make a commitment to act, that they follow through on it — from our perspective, that’s always the focus.”

He also warned that funding cuts motivated by antisemitism could have significant effects in other ways, and potentially take away from discussions about antisemitism.

“When the hammer [of funding cuts] is dropped in a way which winds up cutting life-saving cancer research, that’s when we have concern, which we’ve expressed,” Deutch said. 

“When you announce unilaterally that you’re cutting all of the funding, including funding that can help find cures and treatments for disease and funding that has contributed to the global preeminence of American universities in scientific research, then, unfortunately, that becomes the conversation, instead of the necessary conversation that the administration rightfully wants to have about the university’s need to adequately protect Jewish students and all students.”

Deutch also noted that some in the Jewish community are worried that cuts to life-saving research may ultimately produce backlash against the Jewish community.

“It is a concern that can absolutely be ameliorated. This is exactly how we are trying to address this,” Deutch said. “AJC is not jumping in and declaring that we’re on one side or another.”

On the deportations issue, Deutch said, “If [foreign students’] behavior is illegal and they have due process, then they should be deported. But it’s not either-or. All of this matters as we’re tackling these really serious challenges.” He emphasized the need to protect First Amendment free speech rights.

“It’s not, ‘the administration should be as committed as it is to fighting antisemitism’ or ‘should also be committed to ensuring due process and adherence to the Constitution,’” Deutch said. “Both of those things can and have to happen together, and that’s why we’ve been working so hard to make sure that they are.”

The administration has repeatedly made clear that it is not alleging criminal conduct in high-profile deportation cases, instead citing authorities allowing deportations of those deemed to be damaging to U.S. foreign policy interests.

Pressed on that subject, Deutch emphasized that “due process [and] constitutional protections matter here,” and that every individual should have a fair hearing in court.

At the same time, he said that the rhetoric used by some of those facing deportation has been “horrific” and that universities themselves should have stepped in, but did not, “which is why we’re now at this point where the administration has stepped in, rightfully so.”

Deutch and AJC have previously called for additional funding and resources for the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which the Trump administration has instead slashed. Deutch said that the Trump administration seems to be pursuing a strategy of “fewer cases” being investigated nationwide while “going after universities for bigger remedies.”

AJC is also closely watching the Trump administration’s nuclear talks with Iran. Both AJC and Deutch, who was a Democratic member of Congress at the time, opposed the original 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and Deutch voted against it in the House.

Deutch said that he doesn’t want to make assumptions about what a new Iran deal might entail based on the varying public comments from members of the administration, but said that “the world must agree” on a basic premise Trump has expressed, that “Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.”

As the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran continue, Deutch said AJC wants to make sure that there is a proper understanding of the current status of Iran’s nuclear program, which Deutch described as geared toward producing a nuclear weapon.

He added that the nuclear talks cannot be divorced from Iran’s support for terrorist proxies that continue to threaten the Jewish community worldwide.

“We’ve all said 1,000 times, but it just feels like it always needs repeating, [and] I know the administration understands this: When a country says that their goal is the destruction of another country … we have to take them at their word in the way that we approach this,” Deutch said. “That’s the message that we’re giving to those who are working on this issue.”

A bipartisan group of members of Congress will announce on Tuesday the creation of a new global inter-parliamentary task force to combat digital antisemitism. 

Members of the task force include Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL), along with elected officials from major parties in Canada, the U.K. and Australia. Another member of the panel is member of Knesset Michal Cotler-Wunsh from Israel’s Blue and White Party, the daughter of former Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. In July, Cotler-Wunsh challenged a Twitter spokesperson during a Knesset hearing over the company’s decision not to delete or flag a post by Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that she said was “calling for genocide.” In a May tweet, Khamenei called for “firm, armed resistance” to bring about the “elimination of the Zionist regime.”

In an interview with Jewish Insider, Deutch said the lawmakers coalesced around the issue of online antisemitism because as social media continues to grow, “it’s unfortunately more and more being used to spread hatred and antisemitism. And we know that what may begin as online threats in the virtual world can lead to violence in the real world.” 

Deutch said conversations about combatting global antisemitism began when he attended the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem earlier this year, and felt “compelled to move forward” with more action after social media platforms — including Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and Google — failed to counter it. “We are aware that there are efforts by multiple groups, and non-governmental organizations who are trying to address this,” Deutch said. “We think that it’s important for elected officials from countries that are experiencing concerning and really upsetting increases in antisemitism to speak out.” 

The goals set by the task force, as reviewed by Jewish Insider, include raising awareness about online antisemitism and establishing a consistent message in legislatures across the world to hold social media platforms accountable. The group will also work to adopt and publish transparent policies related to hate speech.

“Always and at this time in particular as we stand united in fighting a global pandemic, another virus rages that requires global collaboration and cooperation,” Cotler-Wunsh said in a statement. “By working with multi-partisan allies in parliaments around the world, we hope to create best practices and real change in holding the social media giants accountable to the hatred that exists on their platforms.” 

Deutch maintained that “the power of having a group of elected officials” from different parties across the globe come together on this issue “will highlight the need for action by the companies and the need for action by our respective legislative bodies.” He added: “And most importantly, we hope this will help advance the conversation that’s premised upon the fundamental understanding that we just shouldn’t accept this spread of antisemitism that we’ve seen on social media platforms.” 

The Florida congressman told JI that as the group gains traction, its organizers will look to expand “into many more countries.”

By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff

By Jacob Kornbluh & JI Staff

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