Two Israeli Innocents Shot in DC

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On Wednesday night, three armed security officers stood guard as the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington held its annual meeting in the nation’s capital. On the agenda: discussions about the various ways antisemitic rhetoric can lead to violence.

Hours later, JCRC CEO Ron Halber said, he found out about the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy staff at the Capital Jewish Museum. It was a nightmare come to life.

“It’s just godawful. There’s no other way to describe it. It was a horrific, antisemitic, anti-Israel, violent attack,” Halber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Thursday. “For years I’ve said in Washington, we’re lucky we’ve never had anything” of this magnitude attacking the Jewish community. “That record came to an end last night.”

In the attack’s aftermath, Jewish community professionals including Halber are refocusing, again, on how to protect their institutions from threats. The shooting has also raised urgent questions: What went wrong? And what needs to change?

“Why they failed tonight we obviously have to figure out,” Eric Fingerhut, CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in an interview with JTA hours after the shooting, regarding security.

He then walked inside the museum, where an eyewitness said organizers offered him water and he remained for around 10 minutes until police arrived and he confessed to the shooting. Both elements of the incident — that the attacker was able to reach his victims outside the event and then proceed inside for an extended period of time — indicate missteps, according to security professionals.

The Jewish community is already among the most hardened targets in the country,” Oren Segal, who oversees the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told JTA prior to the recommendations being publicized. “Bulletproof glass and metal detectors is the norm. And the question is, how broad does the perimeter need to be for the Jews to feel secure?”

Leading up to the event, the museum was broadly conscious of threats. The day before the shooting, it had announced a new security grant from the local DC government — one that Halber said the JCRC had helped arrange — in connection to a new exhibit on LGBTQ Jews.

The $30,000 grant was meant to help the museum cover the costs of security guards both at the front desk and roaming around the museum “to make sure that everybody is safe and that we are prepared in the event of an emergency,” executive director Beatrice Gurwitz told local news at the time. She added that the grant “also helps our staff prepare.”

After the shooting, Gurwitz and the museum’s board said in a statement they were “heartbroken by the murders,” vowing to reopen in the coming days “with all necessary security in place.”

In addition to the museum grant, Halber has also helped arrange state and local Jewish security grants in Maryland and Virginia. He is now urging increased funding of security at Jewish institutions — funding that has already seen massive boosts in recent years following 9/11, the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue and other antisemitic attacks — and pushing the federal government to free up “billions” in more security funding for such centers.

That money, he believes, should not go toward major capital improvements like state-of-the-art monitoring systems; instead, he believes Jewish institutions are most in need of funding everyday operating costs to pay security guards and other basic needs.

Halber added that he did not blame the AJC, whose senior staff he knows personally, for any lapses. He also acknowledged that it’s impossible to fully secure oneself from all threats, while noting that the fact the victims were shot outside the venue suggested one proper course of action could be to “extend the perimeter around our institutions.”

“Resources are finite,” Halber said. “I know they did everything possible. There’s no blame to AJC on this. But how far can you extend the perimeter? One block, two blocks?”

Other Jewish community leaders with security expertise told JTA that, while physical security measures remain crucial, they should not be expected to stop every attack.

“We have to know that these things are possible — not probable, but possible,” Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, who escaped from a hostage-taker at his former synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, in 2022, told JTA on Thursday. Cytron-Walker has credited his own security training with saving his life and those of his congregants.

Now the rabbi at Temple Emanuel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Cytron-Walker said Jews should expect that their communal leaders “are doing everything they can to make sure that people can not only feel a sense of safety, but actually have real security protocols in place that enhance our safety.”

Yet, he said, “We also have to acknowledge and understand that in any situation, there’s no way to be 110 percent secure.”

Cytron-Walker also famously gave his attacker tea when he entered the synagogue — something the rabbi said he’d do again as an expression of the Jewish value of welcoming guests. Asked about the 10 minutes Wednesday’s attacker spent in the museum after killing two people, Cytron-Walker said he didn’t “see a specific parallel” between the two scenarios.

“This individual, it appears, wanted to kill Jews,” he said. “The gunman in my situation wanted to get a convicted terrorist springed. I am grateful in our situation that he didn’t just walk into the synagogue and want to kill Jews. It gave us an opportunity to escape 11 hours later.”

Instead of focusing on physical security, some Jewish leaders said, there should be greater attention paid to what they believe is the real security threat: virulent anti-Israel sentiment, online and in protest networks, that has risen in the months since October 7, 2023, and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

Goldenberg also acknowledged that “I don’t think anyone in this business has ever seen a hotter environment than what we see right now.” And in that environment, he said, everyone, even regular attendees at an event, needs to stay on alert.

“Every single individual has a place when it comes to their own personal security and the security of people around them,” he said. “I’m not saying these people should be cops or behave like cops or counterterrorism specialists.”

But he added, “What people cannot do in this environment is hesitate for a second if they see anything that is suspicious.”

Writings examined
Investigators are actively reviewing writings posted on X and attributed to Elias Rodriguez, multiple law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation told ABC News.

FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino posted a statement on X on Thursday, confirming, "The FBI is aware of certain writings allegedly authored by the suspect, and we hope to have updates to the authenticity very soon."

Bongino said the suspect was interviewed by investigators around 1 a.m. ET on Thursday, but he did not disclose the contents of the interview.

Investigators suspect -- at this preliminary stage -- that the writings they have obtained in the probe are likely legitimate and are a key piece of evidence agents are working to confirm, the law enforcement sources told ABC News.

ABC News has reviewed the 980-word document titled, "Escalate For Gaza, Bring The War Home." In the writings, the author addresses the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and suggests the latest death toll has been underestimated.

The author appears to lament the inaction of the U.S. government and accuses it of criminalizing protest.

The document appears to commend the "sacrifice" made by Aaron Bushnell, a 25-year-old active-duty U.S. Air Force airman who in February 2024 self-immolated in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.

The author also made references to the 1972 attempted drowning of former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara off Martha's Vineyard by a man reportedly angry about McNamara's role in the Vietnam War. The author suggested that many Americans today would judge those actions as "sane." The author signs off by sending love to his family and writing "Free Palestine."

Criminal complaint
A criminal complaint filed against Rodriguez alleges he purchased the 9mm handgun that investigators said was used in the shooting in Illinois on March 6, 2020. It is believed that Rodriguez flew to Washington's Reagan National Airport from Chicago's O'Hare International Airport on Tuesday and that he declared and flew with the firearm checked in his baggage, according to the complaint.

At the scene of the shooting, investigators found 21 expended 9mm cartridge casings, a firearm magazine and the 9mm handgun with its slide locked, indicating that no ammunition remained in the gun or magazine, according to the criminal complaint.

The complaint said video captured the shooting, showing the suspect extending both arms at the victims and firing several times. The complaint alleges that Milgrim attempted to crawl away from the suspect when she was shot again.

Rodriguez allegedly reloaded the firearm and shot Milgrim several times.

Following the shooting, Rodriguez walked into the museum and asked to speak to an officer, allegedly stating he "did it" and that he was unarmed, according to the complaint.

"Rodriguez spontaneously stated on scene to MPD, 'I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed,'" the complaint alleges.

Suspect's online activity
An analysis of the suspect's online activity shows that the suspect has apparently been posting about the Israel-Hamas conflict almost since it started in October 2023, according to sources briefed on the digital probe.

Analysts noted the posts denounced Israel, but did not call for violence against Jewish people. The suspect did apparently call for violence against the Israeli state and encouraged violence against the U.S. and American newspapers for supporting Israel. He also expressed support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), an anti-capitalist political organization, acknowledged that one of its chapters had a "brief association" years ago with Rodriguez, but said the group had "nothing to do with this shooting and do not support it."

PSL, as the group is known, issued the statement on X after a 2017 news article linking Elias Rodriguez to the group circulated on social media following the double homicide in Washington, D.C. The group asserted in its post that Rodriguez was not currently a member of the organization and had not had contact for nearly a decade.

^^^ Do you really think Jewish civilians living in the US will be heartened by finding some obscure justification for killing two innocent civilians?

Justifying retaliation against innocent civilians in Israel is one thing, but enabling motivation for lone wolf murders in places like the US or Australia against Jewish people is simply inexcusable.

Peaceful protest and negotiation works much better > murder FE
In the long run an eye for an eye makes both sides blind.

the IRA learned that the hard way...

Rodriguez actions suggests he targeted those two individuals and wanted to get caught to send a message. He murdered them and no one else, sat down on a bench and said he did it for Gaza. If my theory is correct this raises questions. How did he know those two people were Israeli diplomats and that they would be at that event? If he knew those two were representatives of the government of Israel did he know he was targeting an event that would make it easy to assume his attack was antisemitic, an event sponsored by an American Jewish organization to bring Israeli's and Palestinians together for the purpose of getting aid to Gazans?

The terrorist who murdered Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim outside the National Museum of American Jewish History in Washington late Wednesday night deliberately targeted them after identifying them as Israeli embassy employees, Israel's ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter said Friday.

According to Leiter, the attacker, Elias Rodriguez, mingled with participants at an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) earlier that evening, gathering information on embassy personnel.

After arousing suspicion, Rodriguez was asked to leave. He later lay in wait outside the venue, ambushed the couple at point-blank range and confirmed their deaths, according to the indictment filed against him.

Leiter said local authorities are investigating whether Lischinsky and Milgrim were specifically targeted for their diplomatic roles, rather than being randomly selected.

According to the ynet article I posted earlier:

However, AJC sources disputed the ambassador’s account, saying Rodriguez was not present during the conference and only entered the museum after the shooting. They confirmed he had registered for the event but was denied entry following a background check.

per the same article

I don't care if Jewish civilians are placated by knowing the real motive vs. a falsehood being pushed by genocidal monsters in order to further justify their actions in Gaza.

I am not muddying the waters?, I am trying to understand what's going on in your head? there is no evidence the two Israeli's murdered (who by the way were engaged to be married) are in any way associated with the conflict in Gaza. And how exactly does making Jewish civilians in foreign countries feel intimidated and worried about their personal safety and the safety of their children somehow justified?