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After Shootings, Washington’s Shaken Jewish Community Looks to Bolster Security
FILE PHOTO: A man, with an Israeli flag with a cross in the center, looks on next to police officers working at the site where, according to the U.S. Homeland Security Secretary, two Israeli embassy staff were shot dead near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., U.S. May 21, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
When Adam Zimmerman chaperoned his son’s fourth-grade class field trip to the natural history museum in Washington on Wednesday, he didn’t give a second thought to security.
Hours later, outside a different museum a few miles away, two Israeli embassy employees were gunned down in what was widely viewed as an act of antisemitism.
“It was a horrific reminder for me – as a Jewish parent in this city – that we all have to be looking over our shoulders all the time,” said Zimmerman, 43, a media consultant from Rockville, Maryland.
The fatal shooting of the young couple after an event at a Jewish museum has deeply shaken the US capital’s Jews, and has led to a review of security protocols at synagogues and other institutions.
“The same seeds of antisemitism that led to Europe in the 1930s and 1940s are still killing people on the streets of Washington, D.C. in 2025,” said Zimmerman, whose grandparents were Holocaust survivors.
It was the latest act of violence aimed at Jewish Americans linked to outrage over Israel’s escalating military offensive in Gaza, a response to the October 2023 attacks by Hamas militants that killed 1,200 in southern Israel.
The Washington shooting took place outside the Capital Jewish Museum, where the American Jewish Committee was sponsoring an annual young diplomats reception.
The lone suspect, who was charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Thursday, told police on the scene, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to court records.
Alan Ronkin, regional director of AJC’s Washington office, said security was tight at the event, even though the suspect, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, managed to enter the museum in the chaos that ensued in the aftermath of the shooting outside. He was apprehended inside.
“We are going to revisit our security protocols, and make sure we follow the recommendations of the experts,” said Ronkin, who added the community is “shaken but resilient.”
Ron Halber, chief executive officer of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, said that local law enforcement has increased patrols around Jewish institutions in Washington since the killings.
“A lot of us are looking over our shoulder today,” said Halber. “But we have to keep leading proud open Jewish lives. I’m certainly not going to let it deter me from any public or private event.”
Most Jewish institutions in the city already have robust security, including armed guards at most synagogues, according to Halber. “The big discussion that’s going to happen is how long does the perimeter extend – one block, two blocks,” he said.
“Every Jewish organization is increasing their security, whether it’s having more guards standing outside during more hours of the day, or if they didn’t have any, adding them,” said Gil Preuss, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.
“Right now it’s short term, and we’ll see whether there’s a permanent change in the level of security. My guess is yes.”
The federation is one of several Jewish institutions that said on Friday they were fundraising to bolster security. Local and federal grants, especially a nonprofit security grant program administered through the Federal Emergency Management Administration, are a “tremendous” help to offset the costs of security improvements, according to Preuss.
After some delays and confusion due to the Trump administration’s federal funding freezes in recent months, the program’s grant funding has started flowing again, he said.
About 50 Jewish organizations issued a statement on Thursday calling on the US Congress to increase funding under the Nonprofit Security Grant Program to $1 billion, more than double the current figure.
‘DESIRE TO BE TOGETHER’
Sarah Krinsky, a rabbi at Adas Israel in Washington, said on Friday there were D.C. Metropolitan Police Department cars outside her synagogue, at the end of the block and at the base of the parking lot.
Krinsky said the 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting that killed 11 worshipers in Pittsburgh first prompted Adas Israel to boost security significantly.
Since Wednesday’s attack, the Washington mayor’s office, police department, FBI and private firms have all recommended even higher levels of security.
She said the conservative congregation’s more than 3,500 members would welcome the “slight enhancements,” details of which she could not discuss.
With the shock of the shooting still raw, Krinsky said she expected a big crowd for Shabbat services this weekend.
“There’s a real desire to be together, and to be in a place where people can mourn and grieve and express everything they’re feeling and feel safe and held,” she said.
The post After Shootings, Washington’s Shaken Jewish Community Looks to Bolster Security first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
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