House Speaker Johnson, Democratic leader Jeffries condemn violence against Jews at memorial vigil for Israel Embassy employees

U.S. Congressional leaders Mike Johnson, the Republican House Speaker from Louisiana, and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House Minority Leader, convened a bipartisan vigil on Tuesday in honor of the two Israeli embassy employees, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, who were shot and killed last month at the Capital Jewish Museum. 

The two congressmen were also joined by Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter, American Jewish Committee (AJC) CEO Ted Deutch, several hostage family members, including Ronen Neutra, and staff from the Israeli Embassy and AJC. 

During his speech at the vigil, Johnson spoke out against the anti-Israel movement which has been increasingly vocal and violent in the United States. 

“'Free Palestine’ is the chant of a violent movement that has found common cause with Hamas,” Johnson said. 

“It's a dangerous time to be a Jewish American,” Johnson said, noting that “the two innocent lives we honor today should still be with us.” 

The House speaker said that “the monster who murdered them [Yaron and Sarah] was not motivated by peace, but something very different. He went to a Jewish museum to hunt down Jewish people.” 

Johnson linked the shooting of Lischinsky and Milgrim to the Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying, “In Colorado and in our capital city, we see two cold blooded monsters separated by 2,000 miles but united in their sick hatred of the Jewish people.” 

“The chants of the terrorists who pillaged Israel on October 7th are almost indistinguishable from those of Hamas sympathizers here on our own shores,” Johnson continued. “They proclaim that violence is righteous, that rape is justice, and that murder is liberation. They have created a culture of lies that puts a bounty on the heads of peace loving Jewish Americans.” 

“We cannot let these depraved antisemitic terrorists silence us,” Johnson stated. “We must stand up and protect our Jewish brothers and sisters.” 

He affirmed that standing against antisemitic terror unites both political parties. 

“The Republicans and the Democrats here today stand united in that cause and condemning the violence and the rhetoric that directly aids and abets it.” 

Jeffries compared the violent antisemitism increasingly seen in the U.S. to a cancerous 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 exclaimed. “Antisemitism has been metastasizing like a malignant tumor, and we must all work together to eradicate this cancer.” 

He said that Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were “victims of the same deadly antisemitism that fueled the attacks in Boulder, the attack at Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in Pennsylvania, at synagogues, yeshivas, businesses, and communities all across America.” 

“More than a year and a half since the October 7th Hamas attack, our determination to fight antisemitism, our resolve to bring home the hostages, and our support for the special relationship between the United States and Israel remains ironclad,“ Jeffries affirmed. 

“May the memories of Sarah and Yaron be a blessing at all times, and may God bless and watch over the Jewish community and the United States of America,” Jeffries concluded. 

Israeli Ambassador Yechiel Leiter said Yaron and Sarah “were bridges between the people of Israel and the United States of America. Two young diplomats soon to be engaged, one Israeli, the other American. They represented the unbreakable bond between our two great nations. They devoted their lives to the values our two countries share, that humans are created in the image of God and charged with the task of pursuing justice and freedom.” 

The Israeli ambassador said that “Sarah and Yaron believed that America and Israel each hold a unique place in the world. They saw America as the shining ‘city on the hill,’ and Israel as a ‘light unto the nations.’ But Sarah and Yaron did not just preach these values, they lived by them.” 

Leiter also said that “the intifada has been globalized, and like [George] Orwell’s ‘1984,’ ‘Free, free Palestine’ means ‘Death, death Israel,’ and it is now incumbent upon all of us to confront it.” 

AJC CEO Deutch said that "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.” 

“When calls to globalize the intifada and chants ‘From the river to the sea’ are screamed at protests, these must be called out for what they are,” Deutch argued. “They are not slogans for a social justice movement. They are incitement to violence. Everyone must call that out forcefully and with clarity.”