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Dear John,

Like many of you, I was shaken and angry and depressed to learn about the murder last night of a beautiful young couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, leaving a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C.

It’s so inadequate to say my heart goes out to their families and friends, who I’ve been reading about all day. Or that these killings feel close to home. I’m at Jewish communal events all the time. Like so many other Jews, I feel furious and heartbroken – and vulnerable.

For many months, antisemitism and hate speech have been surging. We’ve been calling it out and pleading for it to stop – like when vandals targeted Brooklyn’s beloved Miriam restaurant, just because the owner is Israeli. Or when protestors targeted Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, shouting that people should go back to Europe.

We’ve been so worried that dehumanizing language would lead to violent action. And now, it has. Yaron, who was not Jewish, and Sarah Lynn, who was, were innocent young people. Nothing justifies their murders.

It should be, it can be, it must be, a moment for people to come together and reject hate.

I want to be clear: criticizing the Israeli government is not antisemitic any more than criticizing Trump is anti-American. I have criticized the Netanyahu government until I’m blue in the face. I protested right-wing Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir when he was in New York City just two weeks ago.

And I’m watching what’s happening now in Gaza in horror, where a new Israeli assault is underway, and where shortages of food, fuel, and water are putting 1 in 5 Palestinians there at risk of starvation, including tens of thousands of children. Speaking out passionately on their behalf is important, and entirely consistent with Jewish values and any conception of shared humanity.

But murdering people because they are Jews or Israelis – like Hamas did on October 7 and like the killer did last night – will not make Palestinian children any safer. It will only further the cycle of killing and dehumanizing.

So let’s use this tragedy as a moment to restore our humanity. To remember that every Israeli and every Palestinian, every Muslim, Jew, and Christian, and everyone else, are created b’tzelem elohim – in God’s image.

From words she wrote, Sarah Milgrim was involved in work for peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Through our grief at her and Yaron’s horrifying loss, let’s do all we can to make their memory into a blessing that gives us the courage to cross divides, to condemn antisemitism and Islamophobia and all forms of hate, to value each other’s safety and humanity, and to show it in what we say and how we act.

With a broken heart, and the deep belief we can build something better,

Brad
Lander 2025 c/o John Bartos
515 East 86th Street
New York, NY 10028
United States
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