Political leaders in Illinois and across Chicago, along with advocacy groups supporting Jewish and Muslim people, condemned Thursday the killings of two Israeli Embassy staff members who were shot Wednesday night.
Gov. JB Pritzker said said a member of his staff was attending an event at the Capital Jewish Museum near where the two were killed. A man from Chicago has been arrested in connection to the slayings, authorities said.
“I was horrified to hear of the deadly shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last night,” Pritzker said in a statement. He said a member of his team was at the event at the museum.
“While they are shaken up, they are thankfully safe,” the governor said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar identified the victims as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim. Lischinsky was a research assistant, and Milgrim organized visits and missions to Israel.
They were leaving an event at the Capital Jewish Museum when the suspect approached a group of four people and opened fire, Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said at a news conference.
The suspect, identified as Elias Rodriguez, 31, of Chicago, was observed pacing outside the museum before the shooting, walked into the museum after the shooting and was detained by event security, Smith said.
When he was taken into custody, the suspect began chanting, “Free, free Palestine,” Smith said. She said law enforcement did not believe there was an ongoing threat to the community.
“An evening of connecting and belonging hosted by the American Jewish Committee quickly turned into a nightmare,” Pritzker said in his statement. “Young Jewish people and diplomats came together in a museum built to honor their shared history but then had to flee gun shots and witness the killing of a young couple.As a Jew who led the building of a museum dedicated to standing up against bigotry and hatred, I know how sacred these places are and what trauma this incident has caused.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson condemned the killings during a news conference Thursday, offering his “deepest condolences to the families, but really my deepest condolences to the Jewish community as a whole.
“We are not a better, stronger, safer city if our Jewish community is continuously under attack,” he said.
Johnson pledged to work to “silence the harsh and violent language” and the “antisemitic sentiment that unfortunately has continued to spread throughout our city and around this country.”
Fiftieth Ward Ald. Debra Silverstein, the City Council’s only Jewish member, said she was heartbroken but not surprised by what she called the “horrible act of terrorism” nor the fact that a man from Chicago has been charged with the double murder.
“I was hoping that something like this would not happen on United States soil,” she said. “But I always feared it.” She said Jews in Chicago don’t feel safe and “this just adds to our fear. … It’s just a really scary time for all of us.”
Silverstein said Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling and the police commanders told her there is no known threat to the local Jewish community, police are increasing patrols and giving “extra attention .. [to] our community.”
The Chicago Police Department, in its own statement, said it is giving “special attention on the Israeli consulate” in Chicago “and places of worship.”
Snelling confirmed Thursday that Rodriguez does not have a criminal record, but declined to say more about it because he said there is an active investigation being conducted by the FBI.
Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive political influencer who is running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th Congressional District, posted on the social media site Bluesky that “the fact that the gunman said he did it to ‘free Palestine’ makes me nauseous. Murdering people for their nationality is never acceptable and this violence hurts Jews, Israelis and Palestinians,” she said.
David Goldenberg, the Midwest director of the Anti-Defamation League, said members of the Jewish community are angry, sad and concerned — but not surprised.
“We’re not surprised because the rhetoric and the language that’s used at protests, at marches, on social media by elected officials which fans the flame of antisemitism has real life implications,” Goldenberg said in an interview. “And this is among the ultimate, where two young Jewish individuals, coming out of a Jewish heritage month event at a Jewish museum, were murdered.”
Josh Weiner, co-founder of the Chicago Jewish Alliance, said he was angry, sad and distraught in the wake of the shooting.
“I feel so horrible; we all do,” Weiner said. “All of these people who work in the American Jewish life and in these consulates and embassies, they’re all families. … May both of their memories be a blessing.”
But mostly he was frustrated that reaction to Israel’s blockade of aid into Gaza could have influenced this or other violent acts, including the shooting of a man on his way to synagogue in West Rogers Park last fall, in which the suspect has since been charged with a hate crime.
Weiner said while he “grieves for any life lost,” Israel’s war in Gaza was no excuse for violence elsewhere.
Ahmed Rehab, executive director of the Chicago office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement: “We stand squarely against vigilante violence.”
Rehab disavowed Rodriguez’s connection to the overall movement for Palestinians.
“We also reject the cynical attempts to link an act of a lone wolf to the movement of tens of thousands of peaceful anti-genocide protesters on our streets and in our schools,” he said. “The fact is, the shooter departed from our peaceful movements.”
Contributing: AP, Violet Miller, Tom Schuba, Anna Savchenko, Fran Spielman