WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Catholic bishops are calling for prayer after two Israeli Embassy staff members were slain late May 21 outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.
Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were leaving an event at the museum when they were shot at close range.
Washington Cardinal Robert W. McElroy decried the killing as “an act of antisemitic hatred and murder.” He said the Catholic community of Washington and the state of Maryland “stands in prayer, shock and solidarity” with the slain victims and their families, and with the people of Israel and the entire Jewish community.
“That these heinous killings took place against the backdrop of the Capital Jewish Museum, which is both a sign of the rich blessings that the Jewish community has continually provided to our nation and a call to unity in our society, is a further assault upon our social fabric and the love that is the plan and gift of the God who is Father of us all,” Cardinal McElroy said in a May 22 statement. “Let us profoundly deepen our prayers and our commitment to root out hate in our midst whenever and wherever it surfaces.”
Across the Potomac river from the nation’s capital, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, also called on Catholics to pray.
“May we unite in prayer for the souls of two Israeli embassy staff members who were fatally shot last night in Washington, DC,” he said in an early May 22 post on X. “Please God, grant strength to their families and all who loved them.”
The young couple were set to become engaged in Jerusalem next week, with Lischinsky purchasing the ring only days ago, according to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S.
Suspect Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago resident, was filmed chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” following the attack. He was detained when he entered the museum immediately after the shooting, with event patrons initially unaware of his actions.
“With great sadness and horror, we have learned of the killing in cold blood of two members of the Jewish community, Yaron and Sarah,” in Washington, New York Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan said in a mid-morning post on X May 22. “We commend them to the mercy of God, and we join with their families, friends, and the wider Jewish community who mourn their senseless and tragic loss. May their memory be a blessing.”
Israeli officials confirmed that Lischinsky, an Israeli citizen who also reportedly held a German passport, was a research assistant for the embassy. Milgrim, a U.S. citizen, organized visits and missions to Israel.
According to sources interviewed by BBC News, Lischinsky was a devout Christian.
The attack has been widely condemned as an act of antisemitism.
“While we wait for the conclusion of the police investigation -- and urge all our friends and allies to do the same -- it strongly appears that this was an attack motivated by hate against the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” said Ted Deutch, CEO of the American Jewish Committee, in a May 22 statement. He added, “This senseless hate and violence must stop.”
AJC board member Jojo Kalin told BBC News she had organized the event at the museum -- which was a cocktail hour for Jewish professionals -- to focus on building a coalition to help Gazans.
The gathering’s “bridge building” had been scarred by “such hatred,” she said, but stressed she refused to “lose my humanity over this or be deterred.”
“As has been so evident in these last months and years,” Cardinal Dolan said in his X post, “antisemitism is still pervasive in our country and our world, and the Catholic community in New York today renews our resolve to (work) to eradicate this evil. We stand with our Jewish brothers and sisters in this moment of pain, praying that all may live in the peace and security that God surely intends for us.”
In his post, Bishop Burbidge quoted Pope Leo XIV, saying, “Peace begins with each one of us, in the way we look at others, listen to others and speak about others.”
The bishop said, “May the spirit peace be renewed today, and may the God who loves us restore peace to the Holy Land and our nation.”
