Two Israeli Embassy staffers, Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Milgrim, 28, were murdered in Washington, D.C., Wednesday night outside of an event at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Friends and colleagues are mourning the tragic attack, saying the couple — soon to be engaged — were &#8220;in the prime of their lives.&#8221;
The young couple was gunned down at close range when leaving the American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS Young Diplomats Reception around 9:10 p.m. The shooter, 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, was detained by police and shouted “Free Palestine,&#8221; according to police and a viral video of him in custody. Rodriguez said he &#8220;did this for Gaza&#8221; in the moments after the shooting, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/washington-suspect-told-witness-he-did-this-for-gaza-in-frenzied-moments-after-israeli-embassy-workers-shot-dead-13372605">according</a> to Sky News.
“The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder,” the Israeli embassy to the United States <a href="https://x.com/IsraelinUSA/status/1925447599164702743" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted to X</a>. “No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.”
The embassy’s spokesperson, Tal Naim, called it an “unbearable loss.”
“Just this morning, we were still laughing together by the coffee corner — and now, all that remains is a picture,” Naim <a href="https://x.com/TalNaim_/status/1925458692662583334" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a>. “Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves.”
At a Wednesday night press conference, Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter said Lischinsky and Milgram were about to get engaged.
“The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of free Palestine is a couple that was about to be engaged,” he said. “The young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple who came to enjoy an evening in Washington’s cultural center.”
Lischinsky was a German-Israeli dual citizen and a devout evangelical Christian who immigrated to Israel at the age of 16 and served in the Israel Defense Forces. He studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and was fluent in German, Hebrew, English, and Japanese.
He moved to work as a political analyst at the Israeli embassy in 2022.
Israel’s Ambassador to Germany, Ron Prosor, said Lischinsky was his master&#8217;s student at Reichman University and described him as “bright, curious and engaged.”
“He was a Christian, a true lover of Israel, served in the IDF, and chose to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and the Zionist cause,” Prosor wrote. “He embodied the Judeo-Christian values and set an example for young people worldwide. I paid my condolences to his parents this morning.”
Another one of his teachers, Ronen Shoval, said that Lischinsky moved to Israel “based on his faith” and “decided to immigrate to Israel, serve in the IDF, and later dedicate his life to the State of Israel and Zionism.”
&#8220;The beloved Yaron Leshinsky was my student at the Argaman Institute, a graduate of the Exodus program,” Shoval said according to Hebrew media.
“He was a Christian, a great lover of Israel, who immigrated to Israel, served in the army, and decided to dedicate his life to the State of Israel and Zionism. A wonderful life story of a man with moral clarity, a Righteous Among the Nations in our generation, who decided to tie his life to the fate of the Jewish people.&#8221;
On Lischinsky’s LinkedIn page, he wrote that he is “an ardent believer in the vision that was outlined in the Abraham Accords and believe that expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbors and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the State of Israel and the Middle East as a whole. To this end, I advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.”
Earlier this month, Lischinsky <a href="https://x.com/yaron_li/status/1921257686798110800/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted to X</a> about his gratitude for the United States on Israeli Independence Day.
“We are deeply grateful for the historic alliance with our steadfast partner, the United States and the great American people, who have stood by our side,” he posted. “I look forward to working with this administration to bring about more security, freedom and peace.”
Lischinsky’s close friend, <a href="https://x.com/zriboua/status/1925494441344667797" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zineb Riboua, said</a> he was “excited about the future, about finally visiting Texas, and about the life he and his beloved fiancée were building together. I was supposed to meet her today.”
Fox News’ <a href="https://x.com/TreyYingst/status/1925507220994666637" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trey Yingst said</a> he spoke to Lischinsky’s father, who said his son and Milgrim were “in love.”
Milgrim, who grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, was a full-time employee at the embassy’s Department of Public Diplomacy.
When Milgrim was a senior at Shawnee Mission East School in Kansas City in 2017, she told a local news outlet that she felt unsafe at school after she saw swastikas and vulgar words.
“You know, I worry about going to my synagogue and now I have to worry about my safety at my school and that shouldn’t be a thing,” she said.
According to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarah-milgrim/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">her LinkedIn</a>, Milgrim worked for the embassy’s Department of Public Diplomacy. She got her Master of Arts at American University and was also a graduate of the University for Peace.
Her “About” section on her LinkedIn says her “passion lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work.”
“While working with Tech2Peace in Tel Aviv, Israel, I conducted comprehensive research on peacebuilding theory, emphasizing grassroots initiatives in the Israeli-Palestinian region,” Milgrim wrote. “My diverse experiences, including facilitating insightful discussions on geopolitics in Israel and Palestine as a Jewish Educator.”
Flags at Israeli missions around the world were lowered to half-mast after the shooting.

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Friends, Family React To Murder Of Israeli Embassy Staffers By Keffiyeh-Wearing Terrorist