‘Dangerous time to be Jewish,’ say US lawmakers

Bipartisan group of members of Congress attend vigil in memory of two Israeli embassy employees murdered by far-left anti-Israel activist, warn of rising antisemitic violence in backdrop of Gaza war.

By World Israel News Staff

Dozens of members of the U.S. Congress held a bipartisan vigil on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, three weeks after the deadly shooting attack outside of a Jewish museum in Washington.

The event was held in honor of two Israeli embassy staffers who were murdered during the attack, when a far-left anti-Israel activist from Chicago confronted and shot a group of people exiting an event at the museum held for young Jewish diplomats.

The victims included Sarah Milgrim, a 26-year-old U.S. citizen, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, an Israeli-born, German-raised dual citizen.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) blamed the far-left’s response to the Gaza war for the rise in violent antisemitism, lamenting that anti-Israel radicals had effectively put “put a bounty on the heads of peace-loving Jewish Americans.”

“‘Free Palestine’ is the chant of a violent movement that has found common cause with Hamas,” said Johnson. “It’s a movement that has lost hold of the difference between right and wrong, between good and evil, between light and darkness.”

“They proclaim that violence is righteous, that rape is justice and that murder is liberation.”

“It’s a dangerous time to be a Jewish American,” Johnson added, calling the May 21st Washington attack “antisemitic terrorism.”

“The monster who murdered [Lischinsky and Milgrim] was not motivated by peace, [but] something very different.”

“He went to a Jewish museum to hunt down Jewish people, and we want to be crystal clear tonight: This is targeted antisemitic terrorism.”

“There are no shades of gray. There is no other way to describe it, as we’ve seen in the weeks since this violence is definitely not isolated.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that antisemitism was “metastasizing” in the U.S. “like a malignant tumor.”

“Antisemitism has been a painful reality of Jewish life throughout the world for thousands of years, but now too many of our Jewish brothers and sisters here in America fear for their safety,” Jeffries said. “We must all work together to eradicate this cancer.”

The event also featured Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, American Jewish Committee CEO Ted Deutch, staff from the AJC and the Israeli embassy in Washington, as well as relatives of slain Gaza hostage Omer Neutra.

“There is a straight line from the demonization of Israel, the dangerous lies that people peddle about the one Jewish state to the antisemitic violence that impacts real people,” said Deutch.

“When calls to globalize the intifada and chants [of] ‘from the river to the sea’ are screamed at protests, these must be called out for what they are. They are not slogans for a social justice movement. They are incitement to violence.”