Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim attended an event at the Jewish Museum together yesterday afternoon, solidifying their careers as diplomats. They met with other Jewish professional "young leaders" aged 22 and 45 from Washington. Life seemed to smile upon them. Both professionally and personally. They were a couple and were about to get engaged. All their dreams were shattered as they left that evening.
Both employees of the Embassy of Israel were walking with two other people in the vicinity of 3rd and F streets in downtown Washington when a man approached them and shot them shouting "Free Palestine" causing their death. The suspect, detained by the museum's security, has been identified as Elias Rodriguez, 30 years old and a resident of Chicago.
Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, told the press that the young man who was killed had "bought a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed his condolences to the victims' families, framing the murder as an "antisemitic" act: "We are witnessing the terrible price of antisemitism and unrestrained incitement against the State of Israel. Libelous accusations against Israel are on the rise and must be fought to the end."
The President of Israel, Isaac Herzog, has expressed his deep sorrow for "this despicable act of hatred and antisemitism": Our hearts are with the loved ones of the murdered and our immediate prayers are with the injured," he stated in a social media post.
This murder brings to mind the death in June 1982 of the Israeli Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov, who was a victim of a shooting in London carried out by the Palestinian group Abu Nidal, founded after splitting from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The crime has shocked the Jewish community, and several people have come to the scene to pay tribute to the victims with Israeli flags.