originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press
After 2 Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed in Washington, DC, I got emails asking if I was OK. Friends sent prayers for my safety even though the shooting happened almost 600 miles away. The murder of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim goes beyond geographical boundaries. A Chicago man shot them “for Gaza” outside the Capital Jewish Museum. I won’t give his name because that visibility motivates copycat crimes as noted in my co-authored book, When Hate Grows March Down Main Street.
Many reporters are writing about the pro-Palestinian extremism that motivated this hate crime/terrorism act and the growing antisemitism that it illustrates. A daughter of a Holocaust Survivor who recently spoke at the Chattanooga public library said that she won’t refer to this as antisemitism anymore. Instead, she refers to it more bluntly as Jew-Hate. That seems like the appropriate term for a murder of the murder of Sarah and Yaron who were attending a American Jewish Committee (AJC) conference.
Their involvement with AJC came as no surprise because the international organization specializes in promoting peace, dialogue, and collaboration. I know this mission well because I worked for the AJC for many years as the director of Chicago’s Catholic-Jewish Dialogues, and later, the 1990 National Workshop on Christian-Jewish Relations.
Making connections, creating dialogue, addressing difficult issues was part of my daily life. My mentor was The Rev. Dr. John Pawlikowski, a professor at Chicago’s Catholic Theological Seminary. I mention John because his many credentials include serving as a professor to the new Pope Leo XIV. John dealt with antisemitism for decades and remains an interfaith icon in Chicago and around the world. That the perpetrator of this killing came from Chicago is a sign that Jew-Hate is a powerful movement with an online presence that evades geographic boundaries.
An antisemitism organization in Europe tracked AI-generated antisemitic fake images online that reflected centuries of Jew-Hate stereotypes. It’s been reported that 46% of adults across the globe have “deeply entrenched” antisemitic attitudes. No surprise here!
And while horrified, the Jewish community world-wide was not surprised by the shootings in DC. Hate leads to violence. The perp walked past Yaron and Sarah before turning and shooting them in the back several times. and firing several times at the couple. Once they fell to the ground, he fired more bullets at them, including at Sarah who tried to crawl away. Sarah was known for her work bringing Christians, Jews and Muslims together. She had worked for Tech2Peace, a program that fosters dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians through entrepreneurial training. Milgrim chose her path despite having dealt with antisemitism as a teenager in Kansas. In 2014, a white supremacist shot and killed three people at a nearby Jewish Community Center and Jewish assisted-living facility. This courageous humanitarian deserved a better fate than this act of terror, but it won’t be easy to shift the influence of Jew-Hate.
We’re now getting conspiracy theories that won’t help shift opinion. One in particular stands out: the killing is all Harvard’s fault. More helpful is the opinion of Brian Levin, chair of the California Commission on the State of Hate, who said that combating extremism and hate crimes is a national security issue requiring bipartisan support. Also a university researcher, Levin calls for a cease-and-desist on cuts to research, data collection, hate crime training for law enforcement and grants related to domestic extremism. If we are to save lives, we should object to these cuts. Contact your elected officials and ensure that this research is supported. Make a call. Save a life.
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