Under tight security, several hundred people gathered on George Washington University’s campus Wednesday night for a service to honor the two Israeli Embassy employees who were killed on May 21 as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C.
There were music and prayers in remembrance of Yaron Lischinsky, 30 and Sarah Milgrim, 26, who had planned to become engaged in a matter of weeks.
Speakers at the event for the Jewish community said what is important is the way the two young people lived, and not how they died.
Speaking by phone from his home, Milgrim’s father Robert Milgrim spoke lovingly of his daughter.
“Sarah wouldn’t want our hearts to remain broken. She wants our hearts to mend. Fight hate, fight antisemitism, create love, bridge gaps with all marginalized minorities in the world, to love and respect the environment, to help and promote the faith of the Jewish people and to promote Israel,” he said while his voice cracked with emotion.
The family prepared that evening to hold a Shiva at their home.
A Shiva is part of the seven-day period of mourning, where family members receive visitors and begin the process of reintegrating into the community.
‘We march forward’: Israeli ambassador’s message of unity
Several hundred people attended the event at the Betts Mavis Theater on the campus of George Washington University. A number of streets were closed, and dozens of police officers, private security guards, K-9 dogs patrolled the area and those attending had to RSVP and then pass through metal detectors.
Rabbi Levi Shemtov said Jewish people have battled the forces of antisemitism for hundreds of years and the killing of the two young people is another example. But he said that he and others in the Jewish community will not live in fear.
“The answer of goodness and light will always be stronger than darkness and evil, because in our history, we’ve had to withstand things like this before,” Shemtov said. “Strength is a human quality. The quality of strength has to come in when there is grief and try to find the goodness, the light.”
Rabbi Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S., said he had to notify the couple’s parents after the shooting.
“We turn pain into perseverance, and we live for them, and only when we do that will their horrific murders not be in vain,” Leiter said.
“May we be worthy of their memory. Now, we take Sarah on one shoulder, and we put Yaron on the other, and we march forward, and we say, what were the values that they lived, and they died for. May we be worthy of their memory,” Leiter said.
‘Scab is ripped open all over again’: DC mayor absent from service
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith also attended the event, and Shemtov thanked and praised her for attending, but he expressed disappointment that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was not in attendance.
“I’m going to step away from the podium so you can hear the words of comfort that the mayor has to say to us tonight,” said Shemtov, who also serves as the executive vice president of the American Friends of Lubavitch (Chabad).
Then, Shemtov stood silently at the podium for 25 seconds and the room fell silent.
“The mayor’s staff said she was coming, and we all heard her message of concern for our community, which is, nothing,” he said. “I thought she would come here tonight to try and heal some wounds that were created only a few yards away by her indifference, and she didn’t do it. The scab is ripped open all over again about her lack of concern.”
However, an official with the mayor’s office told WTOP that Bowser had never confirmed she would attend, and she planned to be in attendance Thursday morning at the museum when it officially reopens.
But when WTOP asked Shemtov about the mayor not attending the event, the rabbi said he had received a communication from Mayor Bowser’s office assuring him she would attend.
A suspect in the shooting, Elias Rodriguez, 31, has been charged with several federal and local charges, including two of first-degree murder and the murder of foreign officials.
The Interim U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said at a news conference after the federal complaint was filed that the case against Rodriguez constitutes a “death penalty-eligible case.”
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