Two Israeli employees of the embassy were killed after a man opened the fire at a short distance outside the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday evening 21 May.
The two victims, identified by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs as 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim from Kansas and 28-year-old German-Israeli Yaron Lischinsky, attended an event in the Museum of Jewish diplomatic professionals younger than 45, organized by the Pro-Israel Advocacy Group American Jewish Committee. According to her LinkedIn professional, Milgrim worked on the Israeli embassy department of public diplomacy, and Lischinsky was a research assistant.
In a statement published this morning, Capital Jewish Museum said executive director Beatrice Gurwitz and the board of the museum that they were ‘deeply sad “by the murders. The museum remained closed on Thursday.
“We work to reopen the museum in the coming days, with all the necessary security, so that we can return to telling the story of Jewish Washington for thousands of visitors from all over the world,” said the statement.
The museum, which was opened in 2023 and has exhibitions that explores Jewish history in the capital, recently pronounced concern about safety and security related to the current exhibition, Lgbtqjews in the federal city. It was one of the 11 non -profit organizations in the area to receive a government subsidy to compensate for safety costs. The museum classified the shooting as an act of ‘horrible anti -Semitic violence’.
Former Fox News Host Jeanine Pirro, interim lawyer of the United States, will lead the prosecution.
The couple reportedly left the museum in a group when the shooter took out a gun. Video A man conquered, identified by authorities such as the 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, who comes in a building that seems to be the museum after he had reportedly shot the couple and had shouted ‘Free Palestine’ because he was arrested by the metropolitan police.
The expression of the suspected shooter of a pro-Palestinian slogan was quickly referred online to support claims that the Palestinian solidarity movement is inherently violent, despite proof of the contrary. An analysis of May 2024 by the armed conflict location and data data showed that demonstrations of students for Palestine were for example overwhelming. Israel has killed of 50,000 Palestinians Since October 7.
Early this morning the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Dan Bongino, that the suspect was interrogated and classified as an act of ‘targeted violence’. It is unclear whether Rodriguez wanted to shoot specifically from Milgrim or Lischinsky.
Hyperallergic has contacted the Metropolitan Police, the Capital Jewish Museum and the American Jewish comment for comment.
The shooting was widely convicted by world figures and government officials in party lines. Mayoral -candidate Zohran Mamdani and Zeteo CEO Medhi Hassan, both vocal critics of Israel’s attacks on Gaza, went to X to expose the murders. Moms Demand Action, an organization that worked to tackle gun violence in the United States, went to Instagram To say that “easy access to weapons can make hatred particularly deadly.” “We earn it all to live freely and safely without the threat of arms violence,” the group said.
According to a statement from the Israeli ambassador in Germany, Lischinsky was a Christian Zionist who served in the Israeli army. The researcher also had family in Israel, according to the American Jewish Commission.
Right -wing media quickly claimed that Rodriguez was affiliated with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, an organization that is critical of Israel’s attacks on Gaza. The party denied all links to Rodriguez outside of a “short association” in 2017 in a X Stelling.
