Washington (AFP) – Before they were killed by a gunman outside a Washington Jewish museum, Yaron Lischinsky had planned to make a formal proposal of marriage to Sarah Milgrim in Jerusalem next week. As their deaths late Wednesday intensify the international spotlight on the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, here is what we know about the two Israeli embassy staffers shot dead after attending a networking event for young professionals.
**Yaron Lischinsky**
The 30-year-old had worked as a researcher at the Israeli embassy in Washington since 2022. He was born in Nuremberg, Germany, and moved to Israel at the age of 16, holding dual nationality. Lischinsky studied at Reichman University in Tel Aviv and Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Ron Prosor, the Israeli ambassador in Berlin, described Lischinsky as a “brilliant” and “curious” student when he taught him at Reichman. Nissim Otmazgin, a humanities professor at Hebrew University, said the slain man had dreamed of becoming a diplomat. Lischinsky spoke fluent German, according to the German-Israeli Friendship Society. Volker Beck, the society president, said Lischinsky’s “interest in German-Israeli relations and ways to achieve peaceful coexistence in the Middle East brightened the environment around him.” He met Sarah Milgrim when she started working at the Israeli mission. According to Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador in Washington, Lischinsky had bought a ring. The couple planned to fly to Jerusalem on Sunday to meet his family, and Lischinsky was to propose there next week.
**Sarah Milgrim**
The LinkedIn photo of 26-year-old Sarah Milgrim showed a smiling woman with curly red hair standing between Israeli and US flags. She had worked in the public diplomacy section at the embassy in Washington since 2023. Milgrim was a leading choir member at her school near Kansas City and earned a degree in environmental science from the University of Kansas. She also attended American University in Washington and a UN University for Peace program. She had a master’s degree in international studies and sustainable global development, according to her father, Robert.
The Milgrim family was not aware of the upcoming proposal. Her father said the Israeli ambassador told them about it when he telephoned Wednesday night to inform them of the young couple’s death. Milgrim’s mother, Nancy, told The New York Times she had been planning to fly to Washington on Sunday to look after her daughter’s dog. She had seen alerts on her phone about the shooting in Washington and tracked her daughter to the Capital Jewish Museum before the ambassador’s call. “I pretty much already knew,” the father told The New York Times.
After university, Milgrim spent a year in Israel working with the Tech2Peace group aimed at bringing together young Israelis and Palestinians for seminars on peacemaking and tech training. On LinkedIn, she said she had carried out a study “on the role of friendships in the Israeli-Palestinian peacebuilding process.” “She was doing what she loved, she was doing good,” her father told US media.
© 2024 AFP
