Washington bishop, cathedral dean issue joint statement on Israeli embassy staff members’ deaths

[Episcopal News Service] Washington Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde and the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral, issued a joint statement May 22 offering condolences to the Jewish community and to the families and friends of the two Israeli Embassy staff members who were shot and killed on May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, were about to be engaged, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Yechiel Leiter, said. Lischinsky, a Christian from Nuremberg, Germany, was a research assistant. Milgrim, a Jewish American from Overland Park, Kansas, had worked in the embassy’s public diplomacy department since November 2023.

The alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old man from Chicago, Illinois, allegedly shouted “free, free Palestine” as he fired the shots that killed the couple. He is now in police custody.

Budde and Hollerith’s statement follows.

For as long as we live, they too will live, for they are now a part of us as, We remember them.
–Rabbis Sylvan Kamens and Jack Riemer

Together with our neighbors in Washington, D.C. and people around the world, we grieve the murder of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, two staff members at the Israeli Embassy, who were gunned down outside the Lillian & Albert Small Capital Jewish Museum. We offer our deepest condolences to Sarah and Yaron’s family and friends; to all in the Israeli Embassy; and to our Jewish neighbors and friends in this region and beyond.

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. We recognize the magnitude of tragedy and death in the Middle East that is a cause of unrelenting grief and frustration — which we share — yet that can never justify antisemitism and the violence it inspires.

In a poignant connection to us in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, in recent months, Yaron and Sarah had been exploring their faith as regular worshippers at Ascension & St. Agnes Episcopal Church near Logan Circle. In the words of Father Dominique Peridans, rector of Ascension & St. Agnes, “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.”

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.

Now is a time of grief for two young people, in love with one another and desiring to serve humankind, murdered in our city in an act of anti-Jewish hatred. May we all extend a hand of friendship to our Jewish friends and neighbors, stand in solidarity to oppose hatred in all forms, and build communities of shared dignity and peace.

The Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Washington
The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean, Washington National Cathedral