Last night in Washington, D.C., two young people—Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim—were murdered outside the Capital Jewish Museum after attending a reception for young diplomats.
They weren’t politicians. They weren’t combatants.
They were bridge-builders—devoted to connecting people, cultures, and ideas.
They were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem.
Their lives were brutally cut short outside a Holocaust museum—a place meant to educate and warn future generations about the dangers of hatred.
The attacker shouted “Free Palestine” as he pulled the trigger. But he didn’t target those responsible for war. He targeted Jews.
This wasn’t a protest. It was a hate crime. It was antisemitism.
I can understand the anger and pain that many feel about the war in Gaza. I feel it too. But I blame Hamas—for building terror tunnels under homes, for hiding behind civilians, for starting this war on October 7 and for holding hostages both living and dead, a particularly cruel act of torture.
And still: nothing—nothing—can justify turning that anger into violence against Jews anywhere in the world. This is antisemitism.
Many Jews today don’t feel safe anymore. Sadly, this brutal attack shows confirms it.
I call upon leaders in every government, in every parliament, in every party:
Take this seriously.
The world is watching how you respond.
Condemn the hate. Protect Jewish communities. Speak out—not just with words, but with action.
The rise in antisemitism is not a footnote to this conflict. It is a crisis in its own right.
Silence is complicity. And we’ve seen where that leads before.