A Torah scroll. Photo: RabbiSacks.org.

The devastating news out of Washington, DC, on Wednesday night was both shocking and heartbreaking. Two young Israeli Embassy staff members — Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim — were gunned down at point-blank range outside the Capital Jewish Museum. 

They had just attended a peaceful event celebrating Jewish heritage and identity. As they exited the building, a gunman approached, drew a weapon, and murdered them in cold blood. 

Yaron had recently purchased an engagement ring for Sarah. He was planning to propose in Jerusalem next week. But instead of celebrating their wedding, their families are now planning their funerals after they were slain on an American sidewalk — simply for the crime of being Jewish.

The killer, Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, calmly entered the building after the attack and handed himself over to police. As they handcuffed him, he chanted, “Free, Free Palestine,” and, chillingly, “There is only one solution — Intifada revolution.” 

Let’s be clear: the First and Second Intifadas were violent Palestinian terror sprees in Israel, marked by the systematic targeting of Jews — who were shot, bombed, stabbed, and rammed to death in cafés, buses, bus stops, markets, and on the street. 

This is what Rodriguez was invoking. He wasn’t a lone madman acting on delusion. He is part of a global movement that defines itself through the language of “intifada.” He knew exactly what he was doing — but even more disturbingly, he believed what he did was just, even noble. 

And make no mistake: he wasn’t targeting Israelis. He was targeting Jews.

Pro-Palestinian thought leaders desperately want us to believe there’s a difference. They insist their opposition is to Zionists, not Jews. That when activists chant “From the river to the sea,” it’s about national aspirations — not exterminationist ideology. That the masked agitators swarming campuses and city halls in keffiyehs are just politically engaged students, not thugs brimming with unfiltered hatred for Jews. 

But after the murder of Yaron and Sarah in Washington, they’re running out of excuses. Because when people chant that Israel must cease to exist — and that anyone who supports Israel deserves to die — they obviously mean it. And now, clearly, they are willing to act on it.

This week, it was Washington, DC. Next week, it could be Beverly Hills, or Brooklyn, or Miami. Or London. Or Paris. In fact, it already has been all of those. The common thread is blindingly obvious: the targets are always Jewish. 

And yet, remarkably, there are still those who defend this madness — academics who parse words, pundits who moralize from behind microphones, self-appointed progressive ethicists who churn out free-speech justifications and convoluted evasions faster than the victims’ bodies can be removed from the crime scene. 

“It’s complicated,” they say. “Context matters.” “Don’t conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.” But let’s not kid ourselves. Anyone still insisting that antisemitic violence, disguised as anti-Israel activism, is just a misunderstood form of political expression has blood on their hands. It really is that simple.

In this week’s Torah portion, Bechukotai, we read a long and difficult section known as the tochacha — a harrowing list of consequences that will befall the Jewish people if we forsake our covenant with God. The passage is devastating: famine, starvation, defeat, humiliation, exile, fear. It paints a portrait of a world turned upside down — where Jew-hating enemies roam freely, Jewish life is cheap, and our dignity is trampled underfoot. 

One line from the passage leaps out with chilling clarity (Lev. 26:17): “Those who hate you will rule over you, and you will flee though no one pursues you.”

Truthfully, it’s starting to feel like that. No Jewish event takes place without security. We live with fear of real threats and anxiety over imagined ones. It’s become a world where those who hate us seem to have gained the upper hand. Mobs chant for our destruction in broad daylight, and public institutions still debate whether these chants even qualify as hate speech. And now, two Jews can be murdered in the heart of America’s capital — and while it’s shocking, it is no longer surprising.

What’s striking, though, is that the parsha doesn’t begin with curses — it starts with promise: אִם בְּחֻקֹּתַי תֵּלֵכוּ (Lev. 26:3). “If you walk in My statutes,” then God’s blessings will surround you from every side. The key word is teileichu — to walk. Not to sit, not to wait, not to retreat. 

To walk is to move forward, to stand tall, to keep going. The Torah’s message is clear: if you face the world with your head held high, with clarity, with courage, and with a deep commitment to who you are — then no matter what challenges come your way, you will be blessed. If we remain rooted in our identity, if we refuse to let fear or pressure compromise our values or our mission, then no hurdle will be too high and no distance too far.

It’s only when we compromise — when we stop standing tall, when we dilute the truth, when we choose comfort over conviction and convenience over heritage — that the protection which flows from moral clarity begins to fade. And into that vacuum come the haters, the chaos-makers, and the murderers.

The answer to the current surge in Jew-hatred and Judeophobia is threefold. First: clarity. The man who pulled the trigger wasn’t randomly attacking two innocent people — he was sending a message to every Jew: you are not safe. And to that, we must respond with moral ferocity. Not fear. Not appeasement. Not nuance. Ferocity.

Second: unity. The Jewish people cannot afford the luxury of internal fracture right now. Left, right, secular, religious, Zionist, anti-Zionist — none of that matters when we are all targets. We either stand together, or we collapse and fall.

And finally, faith. Because Bechukotai doesn’t end with the curses. It ends with a promise (Lev. 26:45): “I will remember My covenant with them… to be their God — I am God.” A remarkable statement that is not an empty platitude. On the contrary, it’s a guarantee, reminding us that we’ve been here before. We’ve been hated, we’ve been hunted, and we’ve been massacred. Not once, but many times. And yet the Jewish people always endures. Because that’s God’s promise, and He always keeps His word.

The couple murdered in Washington this week will never get to build a life together. But their memory must build something for us and within us: the courage to stand tall, the strength to speak truth, and the resolve to relentlessly fight back against the evil that masquerades as virtue. That’s the real lesson of Bechukotai: things may seem bleak — they may even be genuinely hard — but we can endure and get through it, because God is with us. Always.

The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California. 

The post Responding With Hope After This Week’s Devastating News first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim who were shot and killed as they left an event at the Capital Jewish Museum, pose for a picture at an unknown location, in this handout image released by Embassy of Israel to the U.S. on May 22, 2025. Embassy of Israel to the USA via X/Handout via REUTERS

It’s no coincidence that two Israeli embassy staffers attending an American Jewish Committee (AJC) event were murdered outside Washington DC’s Jewish museum by a man shouting “free, free Palestine” as he was taken into police custody.

The motive was clear, but the media dropped the ball. Several headlines suggested that Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim were killed in a random shooting when this was anything but.

Reuters, for one, portrayed the horrific incident as a mere city crime that took an unfortunate turn. They couldn’t bring themselves to state outright in the headline that it was a specifically motivated and targeted attack on Jews at a Jewish event.

Hey, @Reuters, it’s an antisemitic attack on a specifically Jewish target, not a mugging gone wrong.

The gunman shot dead Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim outside the Jewish Museum. pic.twitter.com/ixWoAPOaoa

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 22, 2025

TheBBC was no different — whitewashing, downplaying, and denying the antisemitic and anti-Israel motive for the attack — shameful, given the perpetrator clearly shouted a “free Palestine” slogan on video.

In a later “analysis,” the BBC’s Yolande Knell even went so far as to effectively blame the murders on Israel’s conduct during its ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza.

What’s this? Just @BBCNews “analysis” effectively blaming Israel’s conduct for the murder of its two embassy staff.

Criticism, however harsh, doesn’t lead to murder. Incitement and hate do.

Disgusting that @YolandeKnell, in justifying evil, can’t tell the difference. pic.twitter.com/3X2QPVH34d

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 22, 2025

The Daily Beast took its own liberties, making a predictable connection and justification for the brutal killing of the two Israeli embassy staffers to the unfortunate incident in Jenin on Wednesday, where the IDF fired warning shots in the air in the vicinity of a delegation of foreign diplomats who were visiting the area.

There is absolutely nothing that can justify antisemitic violence; the connection to the Jenin incident is beyond a reach.

Is @thedailybeast actually suggesting the murders of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the Jewish Museum in Washington DC are a result of an earlier incident in Jenin?

Let’s be clear: There is no justification for their brutal killings. pic.twitter.com/IjCTVZLqRM

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 22, 2025

An Anti-Defamation League 2024 report found that antisemitic violence spiked 360% in the US in the year following the brutal Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023. As this disturbing trend continues, it’s wrong for the media to play dumb.

In fact, the last thing that one of the victims, Israeli embassy worker Yaron Lischinsky, reposted on his X account was a tweet that reflects the dangerous consequences of irresponsible reporting, blood libels, and disinformation. Ironically, and tragically, he became a victim himself.

May Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky’s memories be a blessing, and serve as a reminder that hatred and violence painted as virtue do not lead to peace.

The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.

The post How the Media Blurred the Motive in Slaying of Israeli Embassy Workers in D.C. first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Anti-Israel protesters hold flags on the route of the annual International March of the Living, outside former Auschwitz Nazi German death camp, in Oswiecim, Poland, May 6, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki

It was reported in The Times of Israel that 70% of the 200,000 Holocaust survivors alive today will be gone in the next 10 years. How will the Holocaust be remembered when there are no survivors? Two recent experiences have given me a sobering glimpse of possible answers.

I live in a city in Canada, with a diverse Jewish community. Every Passover, Chabad organizes the delivery of a box containing three hand-made Shmurah Matzahs to every Jewish household in the area. The matzahs come in a handsome box with the picture of a matzah on the top, and the three things Jews are obliged to explain during the Passover Seder: Pesach (the Passover offering), Matzah, and Bitter Herbs.

This Passover, I noticed that the information on the side of the box indicates the matzahs were made in Dnepr, Ukraine. The street address caught my attention — Bogdan Khmelnitsky (also spelled Bohdan Khmelnytsky) Street.

Dnepr is a city of about one million people in eastern Ukraine, about 75 miles from the frontline of the ongoing war instigated by Russia. Although a very large number of Ukrainian Jews immigrated to Israel after the demise of the Soviet Union, a substantial and active Jewish community remains in Dnepr, centered around a large multifunction Jewish community center, the Menorah Center. It is located on Sholom-Aleikhema (Shalom Aleichem) Street.

However, the matzah factory, a large enterprise a few miles away, is located on Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street.

Bogdan Khmelnitsky is Ukraine’s national hero. Khmelnitsky led a Cossack rebellion against Ukraine’s Polish rulers in the mid-17th century. While successful initially, the revolt ended with an exchange of Polish rule for Russian domination. Today, monuments to Khmelnitsky are found throughout Ukraine, and streets named after him are a feature of most Ukrainian cities. Yet, to Jews his name is an abomination.

As is often the case in Jewish history, the Jews of Ukraine were scapegoats in the Khmelnitsky uprising. Thousands (estimates of Jewish deaths range to 100,000) were slaughtered alongside Poles. In Sabbatai Ṣevi, Gershom Scholem attributes the widespread rise of messianic fervor among Jews at this time to the sense of vulnerability induced by the Khmelnitsky massacres.

Khmelnitsky was not the last Ukrainian leader to receive the adulation of his compatriots and the condemnation of Jews. Symon Petlura was a Ukrainian military commander during the Russian civil war following World War I. The Jews of Ukraine suffered from pogroms carried out by all sides. However, the largest number of deaths (the total number of Jews killed is estimated to be well over 100,000 — see Jeffrey Veidlinger, In the Midst of Civilized Europe) were by Ukrainians under Petlura.

Sholom Schwarzbard, a Jew, assassinated Petlura in Paris in 1926 to avenge their deaths. He was acquitted after a trial that included testimony from witnesses of the massacres. Nevertheless, Petlura’s exploits are the subject of several Ukrainian folksongs and a number of Ukrainian cities have erected monuments to him.

(Remarkably, the current Ukrainian hero, to Ukrainians and many others, is a Jew, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.)

Ukrainians are not unique when it comes to collective memory loss in relation to Jewish calamities. At about the same time that I was thinking about Khmelnitsky, it was reported in Haaretz that the Prosecution Office of the Republic of Latvia had decided to close the investigation into the Latvian Nazi collaborator Herberts Cukurs for lack of legal evidence of war crimes or genocide.

Cukurs’ active role in the killing of thousands of Jews in Latvia in late 1941 is indisputable. He was the deputy commander of the infamous Arajs Kommando, an auxiliary military force created by the Germans to assist in the rounding up and murder of Jews and other undesirables, including assisting in the slaughter of most of the Jews of Riga at Rumbula Forest outside Riga.

Nazi hunter Ephraim Zuroff, writing in response to earlier Latvian efforts to sanitize Cukurs’ story, describes the evidence against Cukurs in detail, including sworn testimony from witnesses in Yad Vashem archives, noting that Cukurs personally tortured and murdered Jewish men, women, and children.

The effort to revise Cukurs’ (and Latvia’s) role in the Holocaust may be a harbinger of more to come. Recently, Zuroff was cited in an article on Holocaust memory in The Media Line saying, “there are no more trials coming. All we have left is memory — and even that is under siege.”

There have been extensive efforts made to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust by way of museums, monuments, and recordings by survivors. Is it enough? Will the Holocaust continue to be viewed as a unique and tragic event specific to the Jewish people, or will the fading memory of the Holocaust be distorted and manipulated to suit the stories told by others?

Jacob Sivak, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, is a retired professor, University of Waterloo.

The post What Happens to Holocaust Memory When There Are No Living Survivors? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.