St. Louis and Kansas City Jewish leaders are reacting to the murder of two Israeli embassy staffers—one an Overland Park, Kan. native—outside a Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. Sarah Milgrim, 26, and her partner, Yaron Lischinsky, 28, were gunned down Wednesday night just outside the Capital Jewish Museum. The couple had just left AJC’s Young Diplomats Reception—an event that brought together Jewish professionals and diplomats from around the world.
Kansas City remembers Sarah
In Kansas City, the grief was immediate and deeply personal. The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle reported that Milgrim, a University of Kansas graduate, was remembered by several local organizations and leaders as a passionate community builder with deep roots in Jewish life.
“Her passion for the Jewish community and her passion for Israel, was just incredible,” said Jay Lewis, president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City and former executive director of KU Hillel, where Milgrim was a student leader. “She was as involved in KU Hillel as you can be, from a student leadership role to the board of directors.”
Milgrim was active in both KU Hillel and KU Chabad. KU Hillel said her “bright spirit and passion for the Jewish community touched everyone fortunate enough to know her.” KU Chabad added: “She joined us often for Shabbat dinners, holiday celebrations and countless Jewish programs, always bringing her warm smile, gentle spirit and deep passion for her Jewish heritage. Sarah was a shining light.”
She was a member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah and her parents are members of Congregation Kol Ami. Both synagogues shared messages of sympathy with their congregants, according to the Jewish Chronicle.
In St. Louis, shock and solidarity
In St. Louis, the response was swift and sorrowful.
AJC St. Louis said Milgrim and Lischinsky had come “looking to create connection and build a better world.”
“Violence like this does not happen in a vacuum,” said Nancy Lisker, regional director of AJC St. Louis. “We cannot separate this tragedy from the dangerous rhetoric that fuels hate and conspiracy theories against Jews and from people chanting slogans about murder, marching in our streets. What happened to this young couple leaving a Jewish event last night was pure antisemitism.”
“There is no better way to honor our young friends’ purposeful lives than to rededicate ourselves to AJC’s global advocacy and to combating antisemitism wherever the source,” the organization added.
Facing hate with resilience
The Jewish Federation of St. Louis echoed that urgency.
“We stand in full solidarity with our partners at AJC and with all who refuse to be intimidated by hatred,” said Federation President and CEO Danny Cohn. “Safety is the foundation of a vibrant community.”
Through the Federation’s Community Security Initiative, Cohn said, the organization “continues to work closely with law enforcement, our synagogues, day schools and Jewish agencies to ensure strong security planning, training and emergency response protocols are in place.”
“We are vigilant because we must be,” he said. “And we are resilient because we choose to be. We will not retreat from public life or from our sacred responsibility to care for one another.”
A loss that hits close to home
St. Louis’s Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum also joined in mourning.
“She was one of us—a Midwesterner, a neighbor, a young woman committed to public service and peace,” said Executive Director Myron Freedman. “Her death—and Yaron’s—remind us that the fight against antisemitism is not abstract. It is real, it is ongoing and it is happening in places that feel all too familiar.”
The museum continues to operate under heightened security protocols every day. “It is heartbreaking that we must do so.”
A life devoted to peace
Milgrim, who worked at the Embassy of Israel to the United States, was known for her interest in Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding and had previously worked at Neve Shalom in Israel. Lischinsky, her partner, worked in the embassy’s political department and had planned to propose to her in Jerusalem, The New York Times reported.
Police say 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez opened fire on a group outside the museum before being detained inside. The FBI is investigating the attack as a possible hate crime and act of domestic terrorism.
