Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington aspired to Middle East bridge-building

By Emily Rose

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -The two young Israeli embassy employees killed by a gunman at a Jewish museum in Washington had big dreams of building bridges and promoting dialogue in the conflict-ridden Middle East, according to people who knew them.

Yaron Lischinsky, a research assistant in the embassy's political section, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a member of the embassy's administrative staff, who were about to get engaged, were killed by a suspect identified by Washington police as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago.

Police said the suspect then entered the museum and chanted "Free Palestine, Free Palestine" after being taken into custody by event security.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot as they left an annual event for young Jewish diplomats, this year focusing on resolving humanitarian crises in the Middle East, at the Capital Jewish Museum, about 1.3 miles (2 km) from the White House.

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said a man fired at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both the victims. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting.

Lischinsky always had clear career goals of becoming a diplomat, driven by his desire to "contribute to bridge-building with other places, with other countries", said his professor Nissim Otmazgin, Dean of Humanities at Hebrew University.

He thought that his diverse background - a Christian who converted to Judaism after moving to Israel and said he called both Jerusalem and the southern German city of Nuremberg home - would help him as a diplomat.

According to his LinkedIn page, he supported the so-called Abraham Accords that normalised relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, and believed that "expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbours and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the State of Israel and the Middle East as a whole".

The German-Israeli Society said Lischinsky had grown up in the German state of Bavaria and spoke fluent German.

BRIDGE-BUILDING CHALLENGING

"He wanted to become a diplomat so he could actually use his knowledge, his background, to contribute," said Otmazgin, who remembered Lischinsky as a well-rounded individual invested in academics, and as a defender in soccer.

Bridge-building has been an especially difficult challenge since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.

Israel's response, an air and ground war that has killed over 53,000 people and reduced much of the small Gaza Strip to rubble, has drawn global condemnation, including pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. university campuses.

The shootings are likely to aggravate polarisation in the United States over the war in Gaza between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed criticism and vowed to keep bombarding Gaza until Hamas is eradicated, a position that has sharpened divisions over the Gaza war at home and abroad.

Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Bet Mishpachah, an LGBTQ+ synagogue in Washington that Milgrim attended, described her as a pleasant person who could cope with stress and was committed to helping LGBTQ+ Jews feel included.

Milgrim, an American Jew originally from Kansas, like Lischinsky, harboured big ambitions despite entrenched hatred in the Middle East to make a difference to her Jewish community and beyond it.

"What I admired about her the most is that she was so dedicated to the Jewish community, and not just the Jewish community, but to humanity as a whole," said Maxey.

"And to advocate for peace and to advocate that we are all this one big human family, and we should care for one another, and you know, in all of our capacities, strive to make this world a better place."

Milgrim was a member of Tech2peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organisation that promotes peace through innovation.

"Her energy, thoughtfulness, and unwavering belief in dialogue, peace and equality inspired everyone who had the privilege to work alongside her," said Tech2peace.

Sabrina Soffer, a student who volunteered at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and worked alongside Lischinsky to show support for Israel after Hamas' October 2023 attack through social media, told Reuters she was deeply saddened.

"The bond that we created in those days was just completely unmatched. And I'm sure, you know, the vibrancy of his smile and just his warmth were also radiant in Sarah too," said Soffer.

"It's just two people that the world shouldn't have lost - that's for sure."

(Writing by Michael Georgy; editing by Mark Heinrich)