A bouquet of flowers sits between two yellow roses across the street from the Israeli Embassy in D.C. on Thursday.
That’s where officials asked community members to place tributes, which honor the young couple who were shot and killed Wednesday night near the Capital Jewish Museum in Northwest.
The pair of roses symbolizes Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, two mothers who brought the flowers told WTOP.
The couple worked for the Israeli Embassy and Lischinsky was days away from proposing to Milgrim on an upcoming trip to Jerusalem, according to Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter.
D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference late Wednesday night that a suspect, now identified as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez, of Chicago, walked into the museum after the shooting and was taken into custody. The alleged suspect later shouted “Free, free Palestine.”
‘How can we stand here like it’s normal?’
Throughout Thursday, people paid their respects to Lischinsky and Milgrim, including Rabbi Scott Perlo, with the Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, Maryland, D.C. Council members Brianne Nadeau and Brooke Pinto, and Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin.
“If you’re not enraged, you should be,” said Perlo, who organized a small vigil. “If you’re not brokenhearted, you ought to be. How can we stand here like it’s normal? Like this is our world. Don’t you want something better? Aren’t you willing to fight for it?”
Mourners left messages that said, “Love not hate” and “May we tend to seeds of peace not hate.”
Raskin, who arrived with other Jewish members of the House of Representatives, said they came to express their sorrow, shock and outrage at the “grievous, antisemitic murder of these two beautiful young people.”
‘This is about the safety of Jews globally’
The violent act has left people, such as Hannah and Tamar, both mothers, shaken as they process grief and fear over a wave of antisemitism amid the war in Gaza.
“This is about more than just Israelis and Palestinians,” Tamar told WTOP. “This is about the safety of Jews globally. This was not an event that was an Israeli event. This was an American Jewish community event.”
At the time they were shot, the couple was leaving the Young Diplomats Reception for young Jewish professionals at the Capital Jewish Museum.
Tamar, a D.C. resident, called the shooting “extremely disheartening” and “scary.”
“How do we explain to our Jewish children what’s going on in our backyard? How do we wrap our heads around what’s going on globally?” Tamar asked.
Leaders around the world have spoken out about the attack, with the Israeli government blaming it on “antisemitic and wild incitement” against Israel.
Tamar and Hannah said things have shifted in their community since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas and other groups attacked Israel and seized hundreds of hostages.
“It’s been more sympathetic,” Tamar said of the reaction to the shooting. “But we have to see what it’s going to be tomorrow, because we saw that on Oct. 8, 2023, and on Oct. 9, the tides turned.”
Police focus on protecting synagogues, Jewish safe spaces
“We dropped our children off at school to extra police presence in front of their school, and said, ‘Yes, there are extra policemen. There are bad people in the world, there are good people in the world; and at the end of the day, you look for the helpers,'” said Hannah, a Maryland resident.
A series of police departments in the D.C. area promised to increase security at synagogues, schools and centers of Jewish community life in the aftermath of the shooting.
American University, where Milgrim graduated with a master’s degree, released a statement extending condolences to both victims and offered campus resources for students with safety concerns or those in need of counseling.
“Antisemitism is a scourge that must be stopped. We are supporting our Jewish community and ensuring AU is a safe place for everyone, particularly in the wake of such horror,” the statement read.
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D.C. police said the department continues to investigate the shooting alongside federal law enforcement, according to a post on social media. There will be an increase in police presence at religious institutions in the District.
“What we do is we contact our local synagogues or rabbis and let them know that we’re on it,” Loudoun County Sheriff Michael Chapman told WTOP. “We’re going to give them extra protection, extra attention. We increase our patrols in those areas.”
Montgomery County Assistant Police Chief Darren Francke said his department is taking a similar approach.
“We also have a very robust intelligence operation where we monitor a lot of things on the national level to help us so that we can respond to our county residents,” Francke said.
Prince George’s County police officers have also increased patrols around synagogues, according to a social media post from the department.
WTOP’s John Domen, Kate Ryan, Mike Murillo and The Associated Press contributed to this report.