Israeli ambassador honors Overland Park native killed in D.C. shooting

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Israeli Ambassador to the United States traveled to Overland Park to honor Sarah Milgrim, a young Israeli Embassy staffer who was killed last week in Washington D.C.

Milgrim, originally from Prairie Village, KS, and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. last Wednesday.

Israel President Benjamin Netanyahu has called the man charged with their killing an “abhorrent antisemitic murderer.”

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Federal authorities continue to investigate the shooting – a 31-year-old man from Illinois has been charged with two counts of murder.

“There are a number of avenues that are being investigated. It’s not clear exactly how the perpetrator – how the murderer carried out this murder,” Leiter said. “One of the avenues being investigated is the possibility that he had entered before and identified in some way the embassy employees. It’s not conclusive… and we’re waiting to see.”

At the Jewish Community Campus in Overland Park, Ambassador Yechiel “Michael” Leiter spoke about Milgrim’s life, her values, and the mission that guided her.

“Sarah worked on bringing groups of people closer together, whether it was organizations or churches or synagogues, campuses,” Leiter said.

Milgrim had ed the Israeli Embassy’s team in Washington, where she worked closely with community organizations to foster dialogue and build bridges. Lischinsky was said to share that ion for diplomacy and connection.

“Everybody wished that they would have a potential bride like Sarah and a potential room like Yaron,” Leiter said. “They were the dream couple, and all of their friends are now in tremendous sorrow and pain.”

Leiter described the loss as devastating not only for their families and friends, but for the colleagues and causes they left behind. Yet he urged those mourning their deaths, including Sarah’s parents, to find strength in the lives they lived – and the love they shared.

“We have to take the beautiful memories of the people that we’ve lost, and we have to go on living for them,” Leiter said. “Ultimately, that’s the only alternative. You know, otherwise, we’re all going to collapse, we’re all going to fall, we’re going to disintegrate.”

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