Who were the Israeli Embassy staffers shot dead days before getting engaged?

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP/7News) — The two people shot and killed outside a Jewish museum in Washington were young staffers at the Israeli Embassy who were soon to be engaged. The suspect shouted "Free Palestine" as he was being arrested.

Israel identified the victims as Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, without giving their ages. They were leaving a young diplomats' event at the Capital Jewish Museum that was meant to "foster unity and celebrate Jewish heritage" when they were killed on Wednesday.

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Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring and was just days away from proposing to Milgrim on a planned trip to Jerusalem, according to Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.

Joshua Maxey, the executive director of Washington DC's LGBTQ synagogue, worked closely with Sarah and grew close.

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“They were passionate about making sure that our Jewish community really upheld its values. It just saddens me that these two bright souls were taken away from us in this tragic manner certainly through violence which goes against everything they stood for," said Maxey.

According to Milgrim's LinkedIn page, she was a University of Kansas graduate who held multiple master’s degrees and was a Jewish educator working on fostering religious unity among those divided. Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen from Germany, focused on advocating for interfaith dialogue and understanding.

“Yaron was an outstanding student and a wonderful person. His dream was to become a diplomat," said Nissim Otmazgin, the Dean of Humanities at Hebrew University in Jerusalem where Yaron studied.

“For him, he saw religion as one of the cornerstones that actually can create new bridges between Israel and its neighbors," added Dean Otmazgin.

These brilliant, young staffers were also in love.

"They just meshed so well, and you could tell that they really, really loved each other," said Maxey,

Maxey tells me he will always carry in his heart Sarah and Yaron’s example of believing in inclusion, bridging gaps, and peacebuilding. For now, the memory most dear – a telephone call last night with Sarah only hours before she and Yaron were killed.

“And I will cherish that phone call and the last thing that I said to her was that I hope to see your smiling face before you go to Israel. Yeah, so I will cherish that phone call," concluded Maxey.

Here is deeper a look at the victims:

Yaron Lischinsky

Lischinsky worked as a research assistant at the Israeli Embassy, where he was responsible for a number of tasks, including keeping its political department up to date on "important events and trends happening in the Middle East & North Africa," according to his LinkedIn profile.

Lischinsky moved to Israel from Germany at age 16, according to his profile, and he said that he had "the privilege of calling both Jerusalem and Nuremberg my home."

Ron Prosor, a veteran Israeli diplomat, said that Lischinsky was a student of his at an Israeli university. He said that Lischinsky was Christian, "a true lover of Israel" who had served in the military "and chose to dedicate his life to the state of Israel."

In Germany, the German-Israeli Society — a group that promotes bilateral relations and solidarity with Israel — said that Lischinsky grew up partly in Bavaria and spoke fluent German.

It said that he was a founding member of the youth forum of the Israeli-German Society, the group's counterpart in Israel, and took a job at the Israeli Embassy in Washington in 2022. It said that he was also a passionate photographer.

On his LinkedIn profile, Lischinsky said that he advocated for interfaith dialogue and intercultural understanding. He said that he was an "ardent believer" in deepening Israel's ties with the Arab world through the U.S.-brokered agreements known as the Abraham Accords.

On Instagram, his bio included a yellow ribbon symbolizing the struggle to free the hostages taken by Hamas during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel that ignited the war in the Gaza Strip.

He earned a master's degree in government, diplomacy and strategy from Reichman University near Tel Aviv.

SEE ALSO | Sarah Milgrim dedicated her life to fighting the antisemitism that led to her death

Sarah Milgrim

Milgrim worked at the Israeli Embassy's department of public diplomacy and organized visits and missions to Israel. She was an American citizen, according to Israel's former ambassador to the U.S., Mike Herzog.

In her LinkedIn bio, she said that her passion "lies at the intersection of peacebuilding, religious engagement, and environmental work."

She said that as a Jewish educator, she facilitated "insightful discussions on geopolitics in Israel and Palestine." She said that she worked in Tel Aviv for Tech2Peace, an organization that provides "high-tech and entrepreneurial training alongside conflict dialogue to young Palestinians and Israelis."

She had a certificate in religious engagement and peacebuilding from the United States Institute of Peace, an organization funded by the U.S. Congress that promotes conflict resolution.

She graduated from the University of Kansas in 2021 with a bachelor's degree in environmental studies with a minor in anthropology and also had a master's in international affairs from American University.

Her Instagram bio also had a yellow ribbon, as well as a passage from Deuteronomy, "Justice, justice you shall pursue," written in Hebrew.

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Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, contributed to this report.