Sarah Milgrim, one of two Israeli Embassy staffers fatally shot last week in an anti-Israel ambush in Washington, D.C., was remembered Tuesday during a private funeral in the Kansas community where she grew up.

Milgrim, a 26-year-old from the Kansas City suburb of Prairie Village, Kansas, was leaving a reception for young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum alongside 30-year-old Yaron Lischinsky on May 21 when they were shot to death. A suspect, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez, was arrested and shouted “Free Palestine” as he was led away. Charging documents said he later told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza.”

Lischinsky had bought an engagement ring before the shooting and was planning to propose to Milgrim in the coming days, those who knew the couple have said.

Instead of an upcoming wedding, those close to Milgrim eulogized her at a private service Tuesday at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, Kansas, the Reform temple she attended as a child with her family – although she was not halachically Jewish.

Milgrim’s boss at the embassy, Sawsan Hasson, recounted how Milgrim championed civil rights and always stuck to her mission of peace and bringing people together — especially those opposed to one another on religion, politics and ideology.

“This morning, you and Yaron were meant to be in Israel, celebrating with his family,” Hasson said. “Instead, through an unthinkable tragedy, you have brought Israel here to Kansas to meet your own loving family in your hometown. Somehow, even in your passing, you have created connection and unity.”

Milgrim earned a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Kansas in 2021. She was remembered as a warm, uplifting presence at Shabbat dinners and holiday gatherings at the Chabad Center for Jewish Life on campus.

After graduating, Milgrim worked at at a Tel Aviv-based organization centered on technology training and conflict dialogue for young Palestinians and Israelis, according to her LinkedIn profile. She had been trained in religious engagement and peacebuilding by the United States Institute of Peace, an organization that promotes conflict resolution and was created by the U.S. Congress.

After earning a master’s degree in international affairs from American University in 2023, she went to work at the Israeli Embassy, where her job involved organizing events and missions to Israel.

Milgrim would have been teenager when her Kansas community was rocked by another deadly antisemitic attack in 2014. Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., an avowed anti-Semite and white supremacist, fatally shot three people at two Jewish sites in Overland Park in April of that year. At his trial, Miller openly stated that he targeted Jews for death — though none of his victims were Jewish. Miller was convicted in August 2015 and later sentenced to death.

(AP)