Yarón Lischinsky (30) and Sarah Lynn Milgrim (26), two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington, were murdered Thursday in a shooting attack outside the Jewish Museum in the US capital. The perpetrator, Elias Rodriguez, 31, from Chicago – a far-left activist previously involved in anti-Israeli protests across the US – left behind a manifesto declaring he carried out the attack "as part of the Palestinian struggle."
Lischinsky grew up in Nuremberg, Germany as an Evangelical Christian before moving to Israel in his youth driven by Zionist ideals. Zineb Riboua, a Moroccan researcher based in the US who maintained a close friendship with Lischinsky, shared her grief on social media, writing: "Yarón Lischinsky was .... a devout Christian and a gifted linguist, he spoke German, Hebrew, and Japanese.... and about the life he and his beloved fiancée were building together. I was supposed to meet her today. They are both gone. And the loss is immeasurable. The world has lost two extraordinary souls. And I have lost a dear friend who made every moment brighter."
Tom Ziv, former director of the Argaman Institute and doctoral candidate at the Hebrew University, first met Lischinsky when he taught him at the Hebrew University. "He was an undergraduate student in my introduction to international relations course," Ziv recalled in an interview. "During the final class, I mentioned my doctoral dissertation about Israel's support methods in the evangelical world. Afterward, he approached me and revealed he was an evangelical Christian himself and wanted to discuss this further."
This spawned a meaningful relationship that spanned several years. "He became the first evangelical Christian I interviewed face-to-face," Ziv explained. "We maintained regular contact afterward. I frequently consulted with him about evangelicals in general, my research, and even personal matters. I introduced him to the Argaman Institute where I managed various programs. Later, when I became the institute's director, he joined one of our initiatives – a program designed for outstanding undergraduate and graduate students."
"We're talking about someone from Germany who identified as Christian, yet chose to come to Israel and serve in the military," Ziv emphasized. "He didn't merely come to complete his service and leave – he genuinely wanted to build his life here." Ziv mentioned that Lischinsky even encouraged his family to immigrate to Israel, "They relocated here. I'm not certain where they reside now, but they were living in Israel at that time."
Ziv emphasized that Lischinsky's religious convictions played a significant role in shaping his life choices. "He clearly identified as an evangelical Christian," Ziv noted. "To quote him directly, he once told me, 'As a Christian who reads the Bible, support and love for Israel naturally flows from scripture. I cannot imagine it any other way.'"
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Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel remembers having Shabbat dinners with Sarah Milgrim at the University of Kansas Chabad, where she had a large group of Jewish friends and was “full of energy.”
“She was passionate. She was loving,” Tiechtel said. “She was very Jewishly involved.”
Now, Rabbi Tiechtel is mourning the loss of Milgrim, who was shot dead along with her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, outside the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday night. Milgrim was 26.
Interviews with those who knew Milgrim describe her as a “proud member of the Jewish community” who was “passionate about Israel” — and a peace advocate committed to fostering dialogue between Israelis and Palestinian.
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The murder - an absolute tragedy.
The concept of a Jewish woman, "passionate", "Jewishly involved" about to marry a devout evangelical-christian-jesus-freak and live in Eretz Yisrael and raise children [taught by their father] to believe in Avoda Zara and the religion that had spilled oceans of Jewish blood is no less a tragedy.
"מוטב שימות זכאי ואל וכו'" [סנהדרין ע"א-ב עיי"ש]
