Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were leaving a reception for young diplomats when they were gunned down by Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago.
(LifeSiteNews) – Two young Israeli Embassy employees were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., yesterday, May 21. Officials are treating the matter as both a hate crime and an act of terrorism.
Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, were leaving a reception for young diplomats when they were gunned down by Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago.
According to the FBI, Rodriguez told officers: “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.” He chanted “Free, free Palestine” as he was taken away.
Prosecutors say Rodriguez had flown to D.C. with a legally checked firearm, waited outside the museum during the event, and then opened fire – continuing to shoot as Lischinsky lay wounded and Milgrim tried to crawl away. He was arrested moments later.
Federal charges include first-degree murder.
The couple were due to fly to Israel on Sunday, where, according to the Israeli ambassador to the USA, Lischinsky had planned to propose.
The reception they had attended was hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), of which Milgrim was a fellow.
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On the day of his election, Leo XIV wrote to AJC Rabbi Noam Marans, reaffirming the “dialogue and cooperation with the Jewish people in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council's Declaration Nostra Aetate.”
The two met after the inaugural Mass, and Marans presented Leo XIV with a joint AJC–USCCB booklet intended to “counter antisemitism.”
The Catholic Church condemns all unjust violence and has long rejected violence against Jews specifically. In 1199, Pope Alexander III threatened excommunication against any Christian who presumed “wickedly to injure their persons, or with violence to take away their property." ("Constitution on the Jews," Edward Synan, The Popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages, p 231.)
The DC shooting was not the only violence against diplomats that day. Earlier, Israeli forces had also fired warning shots near a diplomatic delegation in Jenin, among whom there were numbered Canadians and Britons.
This was condemned by countries including Spain, France, and Ireland, and the EU warned that threats to diplomats are “unacceptable.” The Palestinian Authority (PA) accused the military of deliberately targeting the diplomats.
The military said the shots were to deter the group from entering a restricted zone, and that it “regrets the inconvenience.”
Returning to D.C., Milgrim and Lischinsky were described by colleagues as bright and idealistic. Vigils in their memory continue, and Rodriguez has not yet entered a plea.
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