The two Israeli embassy staffers who were shot to death outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday night have been identified as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim.
“Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives,” the Embassy of Israel in the United States posted on social media. “The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.”
The embassy shared a photo of the couple together that Lischinsky had posted on Twitter earlier in the month. It appeared to have been taken during an event at the embassy to mark Israel’s 77th Independence Day.
The couple both said they were working toward peace in the Middle East.
Lischinsky was a German immigrant to Israel who served in the Israeli army before studying international relations and diplomacy at multiple Israeli universities, according to his LinkedIn profile. He had worked at Israel’s embassy to the United States since September 2022 and was currently a research assistant focusing on Middle East and North African affairs, according to the profile.
“I’m 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,” Lischinsky wrote on LinkedIn. “To this end, I advocate for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding.”
Lischinsky was a Christian whose support for Israel was entwined with his religious identity, according to his own social media posts and that of a friend after his death. (He said on his LinkedIn page that he made aliyah, or immigrated to Israel under the Law of Return, at 16; aliyah is open to Jews and the children and grandchildren of Jews who do not subscribe to religions other than Judaism.) “Israel is the only place in the ME where Christians can thrive,” he tweeted in 2021. “Not perfect, but livable (speaking as a Christian myself).”
Milgrim graduated from the University of Kansas in 2021 and earned two master’s degrees, in international affairs from American University and from the United Nations’ University for Peace, before beginning a role in the embassy’s Department of Public Diplomacy in 2023, according to her LinkedIn profile.
“My passion lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work,” she wrote on LinkedIn, noting research that she had conducted research on behalf of a nonprofit, Tech2Peace, that trains Palestinians and Israelis to work together in the tech sector.
Milgrim grew up in the Kansas City suburbs, where her family has been affiliated with Reform synagogues, and was a teenager when a white supremacist shot and killed three people at Jewish institutions in that city. In her senior year of high school, she was active in responding after swastikas were painted at her high school. “I worry about going to my synagogue and now I have to worry about safety at my school and that shouldn’t be a thing,” she told a local news station at the time.
The couple was on the verge of becoming engaged and a proposal had been planned for next week in Jerusalem, Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said at a press conference after the shooting. “They were a beautiful couple,” he said.
“Words cannot begin to describe the heartbreak and sorrow. Just this morning, we were still laughing together by the coffee corner — and now, all that remains is a picture,” tweeted Tal Naim, the spokesperson for the embassy. “Instead of walking you down the aisle, we are walking with you to your graves. What an unbearable loss.”
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