US Speaker Johnson invites brother of slain Israeli embassy worker Yaron Lischinsky to Trump’s State of the Union Address

U.S. Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R-LA), has invited the brother of Yaron Lischinsky, the Israeli embassy worker who was murdered with his girlfriend in Washington, D.C. last May, to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

Hanan Lischinsky is the eldest brother of Yaron Lischinsky, who was murdered together with his girlfriend and colleague, Sarah Milgrim, by a radical pro-Palestinian activist while exiting an event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee at the Capital Jewish Museum.

Lischinsky also serves as ALL ISRAEL NEWS’s news desk manager. He told AIN on Monday that his parents were originally invited to SOTU but were nervous about potential travel disruptions due to the looming war with Iran.

“They felt deeply honored and did not want to decline the invitation, and therefore, asked me if I could attend in their stead,” Lischinsky said.

“We were very touched and honored at receiving Speaker Johnson’s invitation,” Lischinsky’s parents told AIN in a statement, “We want to thank Speaker Johnson for his condolences, his dedication to honor our son in the aftermath of his murder, as well as for his consistent commitment to the friendship between the U.S. and Israel.”

Lischinsky was already in the U.S., covering the Judeo Christian Zionist Conference (JCZC) and the NRB Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, for AIN.

“On May 21, 2025, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C. These two young diplomats of the Israeli Embassy, devoted to the cause of peace and to one another, had their futures stolen in a violent act of antisemitism,” Speaker Johnson said in a statement reported by the Jewish Insider.

“Yaron’s brother, Hanan Lischinsky, has shown remarkable courage in shedding light on the extremism that took his brother’s life,” the statement continued. “I am honored to invite him as my guest for President Trump’s State of the Union address.”

Days after the murder, Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic House Minority Leader, led a bipartisan vigil in honor of the two Israeli embassy employees, together with 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. 

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

Earlier this month, a new indictment showed that the suspected killer now also faces four terrorism charges, in addition to the “murder of a foreign official, causing death through the use of a firearm, and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, two federal counts of hate crime resulting in death, and two counts each of first-degree premeditated murder while armed and assault with intent to kill while armed under the D.C. criminal code.” 

“My office will not rest in our efforts to hold Elias Rodriguez accountable for this horrific and targeted act of terror against Yaron Lischinsky, Sarah Milgrim and our Jewish community,” U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro said in a statement.

“These additional terrorism-related charges carry a mandatory life sentence under D.C. Code, while also reflecting the reality that this act was in fact an act of terror.”