What Yaron Lischinsky knew, and what we all need to know

On Wednesday night, Yaron Lischinsky and his partner, Sarah Milgrim were fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC. While I didn’t have the privilege of knowing Sarah, I know that both were diplomats and peacemakers. Yaron was also a friend.

I first met Yaron in 2018. He had just begun his bachelor’s degree at Hebrew University and joined the school’s Model United Nations program where I was a mentor. A cohort that began the year with around 60 participants ended with only 20 of the most dedicated – Yaron was one of them. Charismatic and charming, with an infectious smile and an aura of quiet confidence, he quickly set himself apart as one of the group’s strongest students and a pillar of our team. This was due in no small part to his talent, of course – but more important was his ability to lift others up and to help them to bring out the best in themselves.

Towards the end of the year, I approached Yaron and asked if he would consider taking on a leadership position in our campus Model UN society the following year. He was flattered but politely declined, explaining that he wanted to focus on his studies and on a new volunteer opportunity. That was Yaron – thoughtful, grounded, and always in service of something bigger than himself.

It was no surprise, then, that he would eventually end up at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. A consummate diplomat, Yaron made it clear from the outset that his career goal was to represent Israel on the world stage and to serve the country he was so proud of. And there were few better suited to do so. His command of multiple languages, extensive knowledge of history, and disarming charm made him the perfect representative. In many ways, Yaron shared qualities with the state he was sent to represent: an old soul in a young body, vibrant, full of hope for the future.

A few years after our first meeting, Yaron and I crossed paths again, this time when we both enrolled in a master’s program in diplomacy at Reichman University. Both of us relieved to see a familiar face, we decided to work together on the final paper for a course on conflict resolution. We chose the Sino-Taiwanese dispute, a subject Yaron knew far more deeply than I did. In the final draft we submitted, Yaron wrote the following words:

‘Delegitimization’ is defined as the categorization of a group into extremely negative social categories that exclude it from the sphere of human groups that act within the limits of acceptable norms or values, since these groups are viewed as violating basic human norms or values and therefore deserve maltreatment. In essence, delegitimization denies the adversary’s humanity and morality, providing a kind of psychological permit to harm the delegitimized group.

Years later, the same delegitimization Yaron warned of would claim his life.

It is the same insidious delegitimization that compelled protestors to rip down the posters of Israeli hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7; that has incited violent attacks on institutions deemed as “Zionist;” that has inspired libelous and baseless accusations against those bearing even the most tangential of connections to the state of Israel, alongside calls to “bring the war home.” Yaron and Sarah’s murders were not an aberration or an isolated event – they represent the culmination of a multi-year campaign of increasingly violent and hateful rhetoric that on Wednesday finally reached its breaking point.

Already, the same perpetrators of this campaign are now attempting to justify the murder of two civilians in America’s capital as a legitimate act in the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Putting to one side the morally repugnant idea of using murder as a tool to influence foreign policy, such an argument is absurd to anyone who knew either Yaron or Sarah and their tireless efforts to bring peace to the region. Yaron was working on the expansion of the Abraham Accords; Sarah was a participant in Tech2Peace, a program that brings Israelis and Palestinians together to promote technological innovation and conflict dialogue. These were not architects of war. They led lives dedicated to coexistence, now stolen in the name of false justice.

That people like Yaron and Sarah could be gunned down in the heart of American democracy for the crime of representing Israel should horrify all of us. Their loss leaves a void in a world that needs people like them now more than ever.

May their memories be a blessing.