A Message from Rabbi Bauman About the Terror Attack in DC
Dear Touro Synagogue Family,
I write to you with a heavy heart, and I know yours is as well, as we grapple with the senseless murders of Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky last night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC following the American Jewish Committee’s annual Young Diplomats Reception. This terrorist attack robbed two individuals of the chance to become engaged – as they were planning to next week in Jerusalem, robbed their families and friends of the gift of their presence, and robbed the world of the chance to experience the fullness of their unique gifts. Please read more about them here. There aren’t sufficient words to describe the grief their loved ones feel, and by extension all of us.
In addition to immense sadness, I feel rage. This could have been any one of us, and that’s the point. Sarah and Yaron’s “sin” wasn’t that they worked at the Israeli embassy. It’s unclear their attacker even knew that about them. It wasn’t that they had any particular stance on the future of Israel and Gaza. It certainly wasn’t that they had just emerged from an event focusing international coalitions’ work to respond to humanitarian crises in the Middle East, including Gaza. It wasn’t that they were both Israelis, because she wasn’t, or that they were in the Israeli military, because neither were. It was that they were identified by their attacker to be Jews, and that was enough.
Our Torah wisely teaches that our words birth worlds. “Let there be light,” and there was light. Violent words have been ringing in our ears and filling our streets and campuses since October 8, and this is the world they birth. Slogans like, “Globalize the intifada!” and “By any means necessary!” have meaning and consequences. The attacker shouted, “Free, free Palestine!” as he was being arrested inside the museum (where he had been mistakenly welcomed in minutes before as a traumatized bystander). His declaration, “This was for Gaza,” an absurd justification for his heinous act. There is tremendous human suffering in Gaza, and not one ounce of it is alleviated by the choice of a terrorist to inflict violence upon Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky. The words he absorbed into his mind seems to have shaped a worldview in which the execution of two Jews is reasonable, rational, even righteous.
An ideology that casts “Israel” and “Zionists” and “Jews” as symbolic stand-ins for every evil force in the world is the very definition of the conspiracy theory that is antisemitism. Much of the rhetoric of the pro-Palestinian protest movement we have witnessed has consistently dehumanized our people, and certain factions within it have perpetuated a vision for the future filled with continued terrorist violence. Those factions and those who tolerate it have birthed the world we saw last night – two innocent people lying dead on 3rd street NW for the crime of being at a Jewish event in a Jewish building.
What now?
We must call upon those who aren’t Jewish to stand with us against this blatant antisemitism hatred. We will continue to have strong security at our institutions, and we will remain vigilant as an American Jewish community. But the ideology and rhetoric that produces a world like this must stop, and that can only be through listening, education, bridge building, and a transparent system of accountability when lines are crossed, all of which is desperately needed and sorely lacking in this moment.
We must support the anti-Hamas protests taking place in Gaza, which began to surface in March and are now in their 3rd day of resurgence. Through starvation and constant threat of violence both from the war and from Hamas, courageous Gazans have been marching in the streets against their oppressive regime. We must distinguish them from Hamas and amplify their voices, which are calling for a future without terrorism and radical extremism, a future free of being human shields and collateral damage, a future the world owes them. They deserve to be heard and taken seriously, even and especially by the most pro-Palestine Americans.
Latest polls indicate that 70% of the Israeli public desire an end to the war in exchange for the remaining hostages. They are in the street weekly, even daily, trying to make their voices heard and protesting the actions of their government. It is they who pay the ultimate price for the continuation of the war, as soldiers serve multiple reserve duties and are continually losing their lives and limbs for a war goal many feel is either not attainable or has already been attained. They deserve to be heard and taken seriously, even and especially by the most pro-Israel Americans.
For us as a religious community, we will hold Sarah and Yaron’s loved ones in our hearts. Unsurprisingly, there are people in our congregation who knew them, who worked with them, and who are feeling the pain of their loss personally. We will say Kaddish for these two precious souls this Shabbat and never forget that every lost life is a lost world.
And we will not give up the hope that a new day will rise. Not ever.
Prayerfully,