Victim’s body returned to Israel as Jewish Americans reel from museum attack

The body of Yaron Lischinsky, an Israeli embassy employee gunned down in a possible antisemitic attack in Washington D.C. this week, was expected to arrive back in the Jewish state on Friday, officials said.

Loved ones of Lischinsky and representatives of the Israeli Foreign Ministry will receive the victim’s coffin at an undisclosed airport before it’s taken to a burial site, according to a ministry spokesperson

Lischinsky, 30, and his colleague and girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, 26, were gunned down Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum.

Elias Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago resident, was arrested at the scene.

He allegedly shouted “Free, free Palestine” after opening fire outside the museum on Wednesday night. The suspect told officers on the scene, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to prosecutors.

Jewish leaders in Chicago decried the slayings and pinned blame on burgeoning antisemitism coming from protests against Israel.

The Jewish state’s military action in Gaza, seeking to root out Hamas in the wake of its Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has sparked protest against Jerusalem throughout the United States.

David Goldenberg, Midwest regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said that calls for Israel to curtail military action have too often devolved into antisemitism.

“Saying ‘Free Palestine’ is, in itself, not antisemitic,” Goldenberg told reporters in Chicago on Friday.

“When the (anti-Jewish) chants begin, you as the leader, you lead. You shut it down. You make it clear to people coming to the protest (that) you don’t bring a sign that says ‘Globalize the Intifada’ we’re not going to have a sign that celebrates and calls for violence against Jews.”

FBI agents were going through Rodriguez’s apartment in the quiet tree-lined street in the Albany Park neighborhood on Thursday looking for any evidence that could link or explain the suspect’s actions and motives.

“This horror hits even closer to home,” said Chicago Alderman Debra Silverstein. “We have learned that the attacker lives in Chicago and was likely radicalized right here in our city. This is not just a national tragedy, it is a local wake up call.”

Rodriguez came to the DMV on Tuesday, flying in from O’Hare International Airport in Chicago to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in northern Virginia, according to United Airlines records cited in the affidavit.

He declared his firearm in his checked baggage and flew with it across state lines, the affidavit said.