Senators condemn fatal shooting of Israeli embassy employees as families mourn

A community in Kansas gathered to celebrate the life of Israeli Embassy employee Sarah Milgrim Tuesday after she was fatally shot alongside her boyfriend, fellow Israeli Embassy employee Yaron Lischinsky, leaving the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington last week. 

Lischinsky had purchased an engagement ring and was planning to propose to Milgrim before they were both killed, those close to the couple said. The suspect, Elias Rodriguez, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder; murder of foreign officials, a federal capital offense; and multiple gun-related counts. He could face the death penalty if convicted. 

The suspect shouted "Free Palestine" while in police custody, and the fatal shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, according to the FBI. Lawmakers have condemned the violence as an act of antisemitism. 

Speaking with Fox News Digital on Capitol Hill, both Republican and Democratic senators condemned the fatal shooting. 

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Senators Lindsey Graham, Jeff Merkley and Ben Ray Luján condemned the fatal shooting of a couple who worked for the Israeli embassy.  (Fox News Digital)

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"These two young people died senselessly. Israel's engaging in a war for its very survival. My heart breaks for these two young people in the prime of their lives," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. 

Lischinsky was 30, and Milgrim was 26. 

"There's no room for violence in America," Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., told Fox News Digital. "I appreciate my colleague, Sen. Rosen, moving a resolution today that no colleagues objected to, bringing attention to antisemitism in America. Anytime anyone is targeted, we need to speak up, not just here, but around the world."

Family and friends gather outside Congregation Beth Torah May 27, 2025, in Overland Park, Kan., after a funeral for Sarah Milgrim, a staffer at the Israeli Embassy killed last week outside a Washington Jewish museum. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Senators Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., last week on the Senate Floor condemned what they described as an "antisemitic attack" and celebrated the passage of their bipartisan resolution that recognizes May as Jewish Heritage American Month. 

"This is everybody's worst nightmare that people would not only engage in antisemitic rhetoric, but act on it," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., said it "reminds us all how festering hate and prejudice leads to violence. We have to redouble our efforts to stop any form of prejudice or bigotry."

"Obviously, there's been a rise in antisemitism over the last several years," Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. 

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 a handout image released by the Embassy of Israel to the U.S. May 22, 2025.  (Embassy of Israel to the USA via X/Handout via Reuters)

Gillibrand is one of two Democratic senators representing New York, which is home to the largest Jewish population in the United States and also includes Columbia University, the elite Ivy League school in Manhattan that has been accused of allowing antisemitism to fester on campus. 

President Donald Trump has condemned the anti-Israel protests at elite universities, threatening to cut federal funding to institutions that do not condemn antisemitism and threatening to revoke international students' visas. 

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"It is disgraceful that two young people with their whole lives in front of them can't go to a reception in a public building in Washington, D.C., and be safe. It is criminal. It is disgraceful. It is intolerable, and we have to do everything we can to stop antisemitism in its tracks and protect people," Gillibrand added. 

In an unusual move for active federal court judges, four of them said in a Dispatch opinion piece Wednesday, "Societies that persecute Jews are societies that are sick and dying. Societies that allow the moral rot of Jew hatred to proliferate are societies on their way out of the pages of history."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.