Slain Jewish Couple Were Christian Worshipers

The Killer Didn't Care If They Were Christians - They Attended A Jewish Event

Last week, when alleged killer Elias Rodrigues gunned down Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside the Lillian and Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., he thought he was killing Jews.

It was clearly a targeted assassination of Jewish participants at an American Jewish Committee’s event for young professionals.

Tough guy Rodrigues fired 21 slugs into the unarmed a couple. A wounded Sarah reportedly tried to crawl away from him, but he continued to shoot her until she was lifeless.

As he was being led away from the museum, he proudly chanted, “Free, Free Palestine.”

But what Rodrigues didn’t know is that for most of last year, his targets were regular Sunday attendees at the Episcopal Church, Ascension and Saint Agnes Church in downtown Washington.

Before he came to the United States, Lischinsky also attended the Anglican Christ Church in Jerusalem.

Memorial for Aaron Lisvhinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim at the Ascension and Saint Agnes Church in Washington, D.C. where they worshipped.

And the “Jewish” event he targeted was an ecumenical meeting between young professionals who were interested in humanitarian solutions to the Middle East conflict.

Rodrigues didn’t realize it, but his hateful blindness serves as a warning: this unforgivable violence may begin with Jews, but their rage is directed toward all of Western Judeo-Christian civilization.

Many of the ugly, in-your-face anti-Israel protests we have witnessed since October 7 have been led by so-called pro-Palestinian “anti-imperialists.” They regard all of the West as their enemy. Since October 7, the pro-Palestinian movement regularly dubbed President Biden “Genocide Joe.”

There is an old saying that the Jewish people have always served as the canaries in the coal mines. They serve as a warning to others living in free societies that senseless hate is coming their way.

Washington Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean of the Washington Cathedral understood that the murders of Yaron and Sarah were filled with “brutal irony” since the two were attending a multifaith gathering.

“We cannot ignore the brutal irony of where and when these murders occurred: Yaron and Sarah had just attended an event that brought together multifaith attendees to discuss humanitarian initiatives,” the two religious leaders said in a statement they issued after the murders.

Of course, this “fact” didn’t matter to the killer.

The Episcopal leaders further wrote about the couple, “Their attraction to Christ seemed to have deepened their love for their Jewish sisters and brothers as well as their commitment to serve the people of Israel.”

In their reporting about last week’s killing, much of the mass media, especially the New York Times, emphasized in their headlines that Yaron and Sarah worked at the Israeli Embassy. The “unstated” message was that they died because of the war in Gaza. The two young people simply were collateral damage to that war. End of story.

But life is more complicated and profound.

On Sunday, I attended the majestic Ascension and Saint Agnes Church where the local Rector movingly eulogized the couple as more than 100 perishioners looked on. The main sanctuary displayed a picture of the two with candles below and a cross of Jesus.

Although I’m Jewish and wore a yarmulka to the church, I was warmly welcomed by many congregants and by the clergy.

Father Dominque Peridans, in his remembrances for the two at the end of the liturgy, he observed that “Yaron, is a Hebrew name which means ‘full of joy.’” Rather than a Jew, “He was dedicated to the Christ, Jesus. He worshipped with the community of Messianic Jews.”

Messianic Jews combine Christian theology with select elements of Judaism. Its adherents consider themselves to be a form of Judaism, but it’s generally considered to be a form of Christianity. Messianic Jews are deep believers in Israel.

Father Peridans told the congregants that Yaron was respectful of all other religious faiths, ”He actively participated in interfaith dialogue and was dedicated to bridging cultural and religious divides.”

The same could be said of Sarah. Prior to joining the Israeli Embassy, she went to Israel for five weeks to work at Tech2Peace, an organization that brought together young Israelis and Palestinians for joint projects.

The Jewish News Syndicate reported, “She focused on the experiences of 12 Israeli and Palestinian participants in a seminar organized by Tech2Peace at Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam, a Jewish-Arab village halfway between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, documenting their stories and the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

She also worked at the United States Institute for Peace in Washington, D.C., a federal agency that studies peaceful resolution to conflicts around the world. Rodrigues never wanted to bother himself with such niceties.

At least the Episcopal Church gets it. As the Bishop and Dean of the Diocese of Washington and the Dean of the Washington National Cathedral wrote, “As Christian leaders, we join our colleagues and friends in the wider interfaith and ecumenical community in denouncing this heinous act and all expressions of antisemitism.

As we have witnessed since October 7, the anti-Israel coalition has erupted with violence and visceral hatred toward Jews across college campuses and in our cities.

Rodrigues once was with the Marxist group Party for Socialism and Liberation, which has spearheaded protests and routinely posts hateful anti-Israel rhetoric on social media.

“End the genocide. Israel out of Gaza now,” the group posted on Wednesday — just hours before the DC shooting.

But realizing that Rodriques may have gone too far, the PSL stated that the murderer hadn’t been with the group for years.

Still, other American Leftwing extremist groups hailed the killer.

A group that describes itself as “anti-imperialist” called, “The Bronx Anti-War” posted that what Rodriguez “did is the highest expression of anti-Zionism” and “We need more Elias Rodriguez in this world” in a pair of social media posts Thursday.

And of course, the Iranians heralded the killing. Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor of the Iranian news outlet Kayhan predictably wrote, "Any news of our dear brother Elias Rodriguez, who sent two Zionist wild animals in Washington to hell with a bullet?"

Israel’s “Law of Return” never defined who is a Jew. But the State recognizes people in which one parent is Jewish. Both Yaron and Sarah had one parent who was Jewish.

Yaron’s parents live in Israel where he was buried just outside of Jerusalem. The Israeli Foreign Ministry accepted the body upon his return to the country.

Sarah was born into a family that is tied to reform Judaism. Her funeral will be held on Tuesday at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kansas. The Israeli Ambassador to the United States is expected to attend.

The assassination of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim is a logical outgrowth of the madness promoted by a growing Palestinian movement here that has organized anti-Israel demonstrations since October 7.

The violence of this streak of extremism continues. On Sunday, Joseph Patrick Neumeyer, a 28-year-old American-German citizen, was arrested by the FBI for attempting to burn down the Israeli Embassy in Tel Aviv as well as kill President Trump.

Echoing the chants heard on American streets against Jews and “imperialist” America, Neumeyer wrote, “Join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America. Death to Americans,” he wrote, directing an expletive at “the west,” per the Justice Department criminal complaint.

So, now it’s Jewish blood in the streets. But as the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller warned in his haunting post-World War II poem, “First They Came,” if one remains silent he or she eventually will become the next victim.

He ended his poem:

“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

So the violence and threats against Jews continues. The question is, can we stop this barbaric movement? Or will we see the murder of other Jews, Christians and even Muslims who appear to stand in their way?