Paying our respects at the funeral of Sarah Milgrim z”l
I am sending this message while returning from the funeral of Sarah Milgrim z”l at Congregation Beth Torah in Kansas City. As we all know, Sarah was murdered together with her partner Yaron Lischinsky z"l last Wednesday evening outside of the Jewish museum in Washington DC. Yaron, who was Israeli, was buried outside of Jerusalem. As is also well known, both Sarah and Yaron worked for the Israeli Embassy in Washington DC.
Sarah was born and raised in Kansas City, attended the University of Kansas, where she was active at KU Hillel, interned at the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, and developed her passion for Israel and repairing the world in this tight-knit Jewish community.
While Sarah and Yaron’s roles at the Israeli Embassy make this attack even more devastating, it is not the whole story.
Sarah and Yaron were like so many of our talented, committed, and passionate young Jewish leaders. They loved the Jewish people and the State of Israel, and longed for peace and for the building of a truly open and loving society. They were at the museum in DC Wednesday evening to attend an AJC Young Diplomats event with young Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders of a similar age and with similar passions.
In this sense, the murders of Sarah and Yaron call to mind the Nova Festival and the brutal murders there. All these young people – at Nova and in Washington DC – were the targets of murderers who only knew that the event was full of young Jewish adults and set out to kill them. The murderer didn’t know and didn’t care that his victims were gathered for the most idealistic of reasons or that they sought to change the world with their work. But, as I learned at Sarah's funeral, Sarah and Yaron clearly did want to change the world. G-d willing their memory will inspire us all to do so in their name.
It is not possible to attend Sarah's funeral without thinking of our own children, or our nieces and nephews, and the children of our friends and colleagues. We cannot fathom the grief of Sarah's parents, Robert and Nancy, and her family. Fifty of her brother’s fraternity brothers came to the funeral to show support, as did public officials from every level of government. In their name, we in the Jewish Federation system will never waiver in our commitment to ensure that every Jewish community, every Jewish building, and every Jewish event is safe and secure, and that everyone can participate in Jewish life joyously and without fear.
The caring and compassionate CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, Jay Lewis, spoke movingly of Sarah and her family, and of the Kansas City Jewish community. Indeed, Kansas City has been touched by antisemitic violence before, when a shooting at the JCC in 2014 shook the community. Jay possesses great strength and wisdom.
As chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, but even more as a native of Kansas, I am so grateful for Jay’s leadership.
Sarah clearly had a dynamism that helped set her apart, but she also understood she was one of many like her, pulling in the same direction and believing in the same things. May we all commit to do everything within our power and resources to help teach, inspire and lift up all of the Sarahs in our communities.
May the memory of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky be for a blessing, may their families be comforted among all the mourners of Zion and the world, may they know no further sorrow, and may the Jewish people never again suffer such grievous loss.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Julie Platt is Chair of the Board of Trustees of Jewish Federations of North America