Kansas City’s Jewish community gathers to mourn killing of Sarah Milgrim, Yaron Lischinsky
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (KCTV) — The image of a happy couple projected on a screen at the Jewish Community Campus Thursday night was one people around the world have seen, but it felt painfully close for those who sat in the social hall.
“It’s one thing to see the images on the news or hear stories from across the globe,” said Jay Lewis, president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City. “This was personal. Sarah was ours.”
Lewis was speaking at a vigil in honor of Sarah Milgrim, a native of Overland Park, and Yaron Lischinsky. Both diplomats at the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., the couple stood arm in arm in the photo. They were killed Wednesday night while leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in what is being investigated as an antisemitic hate crime.
“Tomorrow we can talk about resilience,” Lewis said. “Tomorrow can talk about healing. Tomorrow can try and make sense of this. Tomorrow we can even talk about hope. All we can do tonight is come together as a community, to mourn, to be together, to cry and to hug each other.”
Milgrim graduated from Shawnee Mission East and the University of Kansas. She was active in KU’s Hillel, one of a national network of Jewish campus organizations.
Rabbi Neal Schuster came from Temple B’nai Jeshurun in Des Moines to pay tribute to Sarah. Schuster was the senior Jewish educator at KU Hillel when Sarah was at KU.
“I didn’t just kind of know her. We were close,” he said. “She was just a beautiful soul, and there was so much there inside of her with a light, that when you figured out where the switch was, it just glowed.”
Executive Director Ethan Helmand said it was a surprise to no one that she was working in an embassy at the age of 26. When she was a senior at KU, he said, she was an intern serving on the board of directors.
“(That) is really a testament to who she was as a person, how strong a leader she was, and truly how ionate she was,” Helmand said.
He’d been fielding calls from alumni all day.
“Everybody mentioned that she had this just incredible wit and a quick wit, and that she brought with her a sense of commitment to things,” he added.
Amanda Birger was a close friend of Sarah at KU.
“She never would call herself spread too thin,” Birger said. “She always seemed to have the capacity to take on everything that life threw at her, and she still sought out more. She was a fiercely loyal friend, and she would stand up for her friends even if she was intimidated.”
She described Sarah’s love, ion and commitment on many fronts — for her Judaism, her friends, animals, the environment, and peace in Israel.
The story of Sarah’s impending engagement to Lischinsky has been seen around the world, but Birger knew it better than most. She knew the love they were blessed to have experienced together. She knew what could have been.
“I met Yaron a few times,” Birger said. “He was intelligent and empathetic, the perfect partner for Sarah. She fell in love with this handsome Israeli colleague, only to discover that he was Christian, and the Jewish husband dream went up in the air, but she is loyal and she is inquisitive, and she sought to learn more about his faith and how they might build a life together.”
“She called me a few weeks ago to say they were planning on getting engaged after she met his parents in Israel,” Birger continued, “and she could not have been more excited.”
It was supposed to happen next week.
Birger asked everyone to do as Sarah did, which is to never stop learning.
“Educate yourself as much as possible, so that you can advocate for others in need,” Birger said. “If you think you know a lot about something or someone, endeavor to learn more.”
KCTV5 has compiled longer segments from each of the speakers at the vigil, which can be found below. Speakers, in order, are Jay Lewis, Rabbi Neal Schuster and Amanda Birger.
Copyright 2025 KCTV. All rights reserved.
