Killing of Israeli embassy workers inspires father to confront rising antisemitism

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:00]League recently announced a decline last year in anti-Semitic incidents like vandalism and harassment, but physical assaults against Jews in America reached their highest level since 1979, with over 200 such attacks reported. One of the highest profile cases was in the nation's capital. Nick Schifrin has more on that story and the father fighting to preserve his son's legacy. One year ago, a gunman approached an event for young diplomats at the capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC and killed two young employees of Israel's US embassy. Yaron Lashinsky was 30 years old. Sarah Milgram was 26. They were about to become engaged. This month, the Department of Justice announced that it would seek the death penalty for their alleged killer, and I'm pleased to welcome Daniel Lashinsky, Yarro Lashinsky's father. Thank you very much for being here. What do you want people to know about your son? Yaron was a peacemaker. He was a a person that he tried to bring together and also if you knew him, he was er approaching every person like a human being, never looking for your title, your position, your uh uh uh uh if you are rich, poor, or black or white or Jewish or Gentile. He was simply human being like, like most of us Israelis, so he was born in Israel. You moved to Germany when he was very young and you moved back to Israel when he was 14, uh, and he had been working at the embassy since September of 2022 and that is where he met Sarah. What did he hope for his future? I think he would have stayed one year more here and then to decide maybe to get married in that year with Sarah and together to decide they wanted to live in Israel, and I think to work for the understanding between the people that was her heart's desire, yeah. The American Jewish Committee recently said this of your son's death and Sarah's death. The attacks spread fear throughout the Jewish community across the world. Do you think that's true? I think it's it's, it's no doubt that the anti-Semitism is growing. Yesterday we were in the US Holocaust Memorial where they also honor the Saran Yaron, and you go through the museum and you see how it began and it began with the lies that we hear today in the news and in the, in the, in the media. and it began with, with propaganda and the sadly is what we are seeing today, the anti-Defamation League measures anti-Semitic incidents, and it said that in 2025 there were 6,274 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States. That's actually 33% lower than the 9,354 incidents from 2024, but it is 5 times higher. than one decade ago. What do you think the causes of that kind of hate? Well, what we hear is that the causes the war in Gaza, the Gaza war, but anti-Semitism is an old virus. It's an old demon that sometimes awake. and the, and, and, and, and begin to to make the bad work. The prosecutors who are pursuing your son's alleged killer, released um some of the language that he wrote, uh, and he wrote, quote, The atrocities committed by the Israelis against Palestine defied description and defy quantification, nonviolent protest has not amounted to much. There are many Americans for which my action will be highly legible and in some way, the only sane thing to do free Palestine. Do you see a connection between how the state of Israel acts and anti-Semitic violence?

[00:04:15]I see that people make a connection, but I don't see I don't see any connection. There is no other country that if you attack a neighborhood or something, first you ask the people to leave the neighborhood because you will attack because you know that terrorists are hiding in that neighborhood, that if you will attack a building, you will knock on the roof first, yeah, with these kinds of knocking on the roof before giving time to the people. There is no other country that will do something like this. It's like in the Nazi time, the lies that they came about the Jewish people that they, the, the lives that they try to, to, to, to put in the minds of the people. I see, I see the same that is happening today, sadly. The Justice Department recently said it would seek the death penalty. and the person who allegedly killed your son, and, and you recently gave an interview where you said that that made you conflicted. Why? My wife, she says that he deserved it. He cannot. He premeditate. He planned it. He came from Chicago. to kill her son and, and, and Sarah and maybe more people if he would have had that. For me it's still difficult to warn the death of somebody, I mean. Of course, I, like I said in that interview, thank God that I am not the person that needs to decide that. For Jews, memory carries responsibility.

[00:05:44]And so, how will you not only remember but honor your son's legacy.

[00:05:50]We are publishing a book with his pictures, personally, I want to engage also in speaking in churches against anti-Semitism, so I will dedicate part of my life uh also to that in memory of Ferron to try to, he was a peacemaker.

[00:06:09]He was a person bringing people together. I would like to in that way also to bring people together to try to to teach about Israel and against anti-Semitism. You have brought, uh, if I may say, grace and compassion to this moment of your grief.

[00:06:30]How do you think you've maintained that grace and compassion, despite what you've been through. We know that the grace and compassion comes from God, comes from above. So we try to, to be ambassadors of him in this earth and to try to be compassionate with other people.

[00:06:56]We to try It's not easy. We are human beings and but uh if we get grace and compassion from God, we can give to others. Daniel Oshinsky, we appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for having me.