A gunman opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. Wednesday night, taking the lives of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, a soon-to-be-engaged couple who worked at the Israeli embassy.
“The couple that was gunned down tonight in the name of ‘free Palestine,’ was a young couple about to be engaged,” according to Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
Lischinsky had just purchased a ring and planned to propose to Milgrim in Jerusalem next week. “They were a beautiful couple,” Leiter said.
The suspect, identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, entered the museum following the shooting and shouted, “Free, free Palestine” as authorities arrested him.
The couple was shot at “close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Tal Naim Cohen, spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in Washington said in a statement.
President Donald Trump reacted to the news early Thursday morning, writing on Truth Social: “These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and radicalism have no place in the USA. Condolences to the families of the victims. So sad that such things as this can happen! God Bless You ALL!”
The young couple was “in the prime of their lives,” the embassy wrote in a post on X.
“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. Our hearts are with their families, and the embassy will be by their side during this terrible time.”
The shooting is “the direct result of toxic antisemitic incitement against Israel and Jews around the world that has been going on since the Oct. 7th massacre,” Gideon Sa’ar, Israel’s foreign affairs minister, said Thursday.
Lischinsky, according to The Times of Israel, moved to Israel from Germany when he was 16. In 2022, Lischinsky came to the U.S. to work at the embassy. The young man earned a master’s in government, diplomacy & strategy from Reichman University in Israel, and a bachelor’s in international relations from the Hebrew University.
Milgrim worked at the embassy’s public diplomacy department, The Times of Israel reports. She earned her master’s degree in international studies from American University in D.C. She also earned a master’s in natural resources and sustainable development from the United Nations University of Peace.
Additional information was added to this piece after publication.
