We Are All Sarah and Yaron
On Wednesday night, young leaders gathered at the Capital Jewish Museum for an American Jewish Committee (AJC) event. As they left the museum, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were gunned down and murdered in cold blood.
Reports indicate the gunman walked past the couple and then shot them from behind until his gun was empty. He then reloaded and kept shooting with a clear intent to kill. Once police arrived, he said, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.” As he was detained, he yelled, “Free, free Palestine.”
It doesn’t appear that Yaron and Sarah were targeted because they worked at the Israeli Embassy. They appear to have been targeted for one reason and one reason only – because they attended a Jewish event at a Jewish museum, and the perpetrator believed they were both Jewish, which makes it an act of antisemitism.
This attack was a hate crime motivated by anti-Israel sentiment that manifested as antisemitic violence. This was an act of political violence, cynically done in the name of the Palestinian cause.
The shooter used the phrase “free Palestine” as an antisemitic call to kill. This does not mean that every call to “free Palestine” is inherently a deadly antisemitic canard. Nor does it mean that universities such as Harvard should be banned from having international students. Nor should it be used to justify stripping individuals of the due process to which they are entitled. But it’s terrifying, and there are no easy answers.
Degrading our democracy and weakening constitutionally-protected rights is not the answer. Detaining, deporting, and banning foreigners will not fix this problem either. Certainly not in this case, where the perpetrator was an American college-educated young professional from Chicago with no prior criminal background.
This horrific shooting has left us with a sense of fear and anger, and a shared conviction that no Jew should live in fear.
We realize that something went tragically wrong with security at and around this Jewish event, which has led to more questions than answers. What was different about this event than any other Jewish event or gathering? How do we fortify our Jewish institutions to make sure something like this tragedy doesn’t occur again, and is that even possible? Must we all be on high alert given a pervasive threat of violence, or was this just a deranged individual out to attack Jews? We don’t have the answers to these questions, and this uncertainty leads to fear.
There is also reason for anger. Yaron and Sarah were just beginning their lives together. They were soon to be engaged, and – from our firsthand experience working with Sarah – they were incredibly kind and committed people. It’s infuriating that their lives were cut short in a senseless act of hate. Amid this devastating loss, we are sending our strength and prayers to their families and friends, and our friends at the Embassy of Israel and AJC.
It could have been any of us targeted while leaving a Jewish event, and no one deserves to be victimized by hate. Our sense of security may be somewhat shattered in this moment of grief, but our conviction is strong. Today, we’re all Yaron and Sarah, and we’re committed to ensuring their memories will be a blessing to combat antisemitism in all its forms, working together to ensure that no Jew should live in fear.
If you’d like to take action around this tragic event, sign and share JDCA’s petition to stand in solidarity with the victims, their families, and Jewish community members reeling from this act of hatred.
