Shock in the Jewish community over the killing of two Israeli embassy employees: ‘We are always the target’

The shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers, Yaron Lishinsky and Sarah Milgrim, in downtown Washington has sent shockwaves through the city’s Jewish community. Some members gathered Thursday near the Jewish Museum, where the shooting took place. The suspect shouted, “Free Palestine” after being arrested. A day after the shooting, people visiting the site shared messages of grief, called for an end to the violence, and demanded increased protection. Yael Bromverg, a constitutional rights lawyer, said the community is “distraught, completely distraught.” “We Jews make up only 2% of the world’s population, and we are always the target,” she said.

Police removed the security cordon they had established around the museum on Thursday, and members of Washington’s Jewish community, Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter, members of Congress from the Republican and Democratic Parties, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, and many anonymous people came to offer their condolences. Some left flowers. Others wrote messages with markers on sheets of paper, calling for peace or offering a tribute to the victims.

“May we plant and nurture the seeds of peace, not those of hate,” read one message. “I pray that this crime may be a cry that leads to peace,” read another. “May their memory be a blessing,” read yet another. “May a peacemaker step forward to build love, not hate.”

“It’s very sad, especially because the people who were attacked were committed to peace,” reflected Bromverg, who noted that the victims were in favor of peace and bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza. “We have to protect the peacekeepers,” he said, calling the shooting the day before “senseless violence.”

“This will never stop if we don’t start doing things differently,” said Scott Perlo, rabbi of the Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, the local synagogue, outside the Jewish Museum. “I’m tired of people not thinking about the future and thinking in such a fanciful, almost messianic way, believing that they alone, with enough violence and effort, can once and for all end the problem of 14 million people, seven million on each side,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Israeli and Palestinian populations.

“The idea that actions like these are going to somehow resolve this conflict, one way or another, fills me with profound rage, it affects me deeply,” added Perlo, who lamented that without a change of mentality, “both Israelis and Palestinians will be in this situation for the next few centuries.”

“It’s a completely intractable situation; none of this makes sense. There’s terrorism, there’s pain and suffering, and no one’s thinking about the future, least of all the guy who shot these two lovely people last night,” he added.

The doors of the museum remained closed on Thursday. Beatrice Gurwitz, its director, called the murders “an act of horrific antisemitic violence.” “This tragedy is devastating. Such acts of terror attempt to instill fear, silence voices, and erase history — but we refuse to let them succeed,” she said in an emailed statement.

Gurwitz said they were working to reopen the museum in the coming days with safety measures in place, “so we can return to telling the story of Jewish Washington for thousands of visitors from around the world.”

Yoni Kalin and Katie Kalisher were inside the museum when they heard gunshots and a man came in looking distressed. Kalin said people came to his aid and brought him water, thinking he needed help, not realizing he was the suspect. When police arrived, he pulled out a Palestinian scarf and repeatedly shouted “Free Palestine,” Kalin told the AP.

“This event was about humanitarian aid,” Kalin said. “How can we truly help both the people of Gaza and the people of Israel? How can we unite Muslims, Jews and Christians to work together and truly help innocent people? And here he is, murdering two people in cold blood,” he added.

“I did it for Palestine,” says the alleged perpetrator

The shooter was identified by police as Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old pro-Palestinian activist from Chicago whose home was searched by law enforcement officers on Thursday. The man told police after his arrest, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to case documents released Thursday.

The documents indicate that the shooting was captured on surveillance cameras outside the museum, which authorities say show Rodriguez firing several more shots at the victims after they fell to the ground.

The alleged perpetrator shouted “Free Palestine” as he was led away after his arrest and told police he was the attacker, according to the affidavit filed by the FBI. Rodriguez told investigators he admired the man who set himself on fire in front of the Israeli Embassy in February 2024 and described him as “courageous” and a “martyr.” He also stated that he bought tickets for the event at the museum about three hours before it began, according to court documents.

Rodriguez faces two counts of first-degree murder, murder of foreign officials, and other counts. Additional charges are likely, prosecutors said Thursday, as authorities continue to investigate the murders as a hate crime against the Jewish community and as an act of terrorism.

“Violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero. It is the kind of case we will vigorously pursue,” said Jeanine Pirro, the interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. “Antisemitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation’s capital.”

At the museum’s gates, Rabbi Perlo lamented this Thursday that “when you use radical rhetoric, people listen. And if you try to take that rhetoric to the extreme every time, someone will pick up a gun and start shooting. It’s irresponsible to speak without recognizing that such messages lead to action. I don’t understand how this helps Palestine,” he said.

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