The two young Israeli embassy employees killed in a shooting at a Jewish museum in Washington had big dreams of building bridges and promoting dialogue in the conflict-ridden Middle East, according to people who knew them.

Yaron Lischinsky, a research assistant in the embassy’s political section, and partner Sarah Lynn Milgrim, a member of the embassy’s administrative staff, who were about to be engaged, were killed by a suspect identified by Washington police as 30-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago.

Police said the suspect then entered the museum and chanted “Free Palestine, free Palestine,” after being taken into custody by event security.

Lischinsky and Milgrim were shot as they left an annual event for young Jewish diplomats, this year focusing on resolving humanitarian crises in the Middle East, at the Capital Jewish Museum, about 1.3 miles (2 kilometers) from the White House.

Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith said a man fired at a group of four people with a handgun, hitting both victims. He was seen pacing outside the museum prior to the shooting.

Lischinsky always had clear career goals of becoming a diplomat, driven by his desire to “contribute to bridge-building with other places, with other countries,” said his professor, Nissim Otmazgin, Dean of Humanities at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

He thought that his diverse background — having a Christian father and a Jewish mother and calling both Jerusalem and the southern German city of Nuremberg home — would help him as a diplomat.

According to his LinkedIn page, Lischinsky supported the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries, and believed that “expanding the circle of peace with our Arab neighbors and pursuing regional cooperation is in the best interest of the State of Israel and the Middle East as a whole.”

The German-Israeli Society said Lischinsky had grown up in the state of Bavaria and spoke fluent German. He moved to Israel at 16 and relocated to the US in September 2022 for work.

“He wanted to become a diplomat so he could actually use his knowledge, his background, to contribute,” said Otmazgin, who remembered Lischinsky as a well-rounded individual invested in academics and as a defender in soccer.

Regional peace has become a particularly distant prospect since Hamas launched its deadly invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages.

In the time since, Israel’s air and ground campaign in Gaza has killed more than 53,000 people, according to local Hamas-run health authorities, whose count can’t be verified and doesn’t differentiate between combatants and civilians.

The campaign in Gaza has drawn global condemnation, including on US university campuses in the form of extensive anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian protests.

The shootings are likely to aggravate polarization in the United States between supporters of Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Joshua Maxey, Executive Director of Bet Mishpachah, an LGBTQ synagogue in Washington that Milgrim attended, described her as a pleasant person who could cope with stress and was committed to helping LGBTQ Jews feel included.

Milgrim, an American Jew originally from Kansas, like Lischinsky harbored big ambitions to make a difference to her Jewish community and beyond it.

“What I admired about her the most is that she was so dedicated to the Jewish community, and not just the Jewish community, but to humanity as a whole,” said Maxey.

“And to advocate for peace and to advocate that we are all this one big human family, and we should care for one another, and, you know, in all of our capacities, strive to make this world a better place.”

Milgrim was a member of Tech2peace, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization that promotes peace through innovation.

“Her energy, thoughtfulness, and unwavering belief in dialogue, peace and equality inspired everyone who had the privilege to work alongside her,” said Tech2peace.

Sabrina Soffer, a student who volunteered at the Israeli embassy and worked alongside Lischinsky to show support for Israel after October 7 through social media, told Reuters she was deeply saddened.

“The bond that we created in those days was just completely unmatched. And I’m sure, you know, the vibrancy of his smile and just his warmth were also radiant in Sarah, too,” said Soffer.

“It’s just two people that the world shouldn’t have lost — that’s for sure.”

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report.