24-05-2025
A young Israeli diplomat was returning home to propose. Now they dig his grave
As locations for a proposal go, it doesn't get much better than the picturesque village of Beit Zayit.
Set in the steep, wooded Judean mountains to the west of Jerusalem, it was here that Yaron Lischinsky, a gifted young diplomat at Israel's Washington embassy, intended to fly on Sunday with his American girlfriend Sarah Milgrim, another embassy staffer, to introduce her to his parents and get engaged.
Instead, on Friday afternoon, a workman mopped the sweat from his brow as he stood over Mr Lischinsky's freshly dug grave in the small cemetery on the edge of the village.
The couple were murdered two days earlier in the US capital by a gunman shouting 'free Palestine' – an act of political and racial violence, which shocked the world and led Israel to partly blame world leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, for condemning Israel's new Gaza offensive.
The revulsion and grief are exacerbated by the fact that the victims were so obviously in love and, just as obviously, at the start of glittering careers.
Yaron Lischinsky, 30, knew from a young age that he wanted to be a diplomat.
Born in Israel, his family emigrated to Germany before returning when he was 16.
It meant that when he first attended Mae Boyar High School in Jerusalem, he was initially quiet among his classmates due to his hesitancy in speaking Hebrew.
But even then, his personality stood out, according to Mr Lischinsky's former PE teacher.
'I remember his character was very special,' Yoram Menachem told reporters. 'He was a wonderful student.'
Swiftly finding his feet in a radically different environment to Germany, the young Lischinsky, who is understood to have three siblings, was aided by his talent for football, which eventually saw him picked for the youth side of Beitar Jerusalem, a professional club.
'I remember that he was really, really good at it,' a friend of Mr Lischinsky's older brother, who asked not to be named, told The Telegraph.
'In Germany he had played in decent teams and when he came to Israel he found the level was not nearly so good, so he thrived.'
By the time he left school, Mr Lischinsky's exposure to multiple languages had become an asset, and he began to learn Japanese as part of his degree in international relations and Asian studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
'His dream was to become a diplomat,' Nissim Otmazgin, the dean of humanities at the university told CNN.
'In many ways, I think for me he symbolises the hope of Israel. Young people, idealistic, that are going abroad, studying about different cultures, and trying to do good for their country.
'So in this sense, it is not only a personal tragedy – it's also kind of a public tragedy.'
The professor described diplomacy as not just a career ambition, but a 'calling' for the Israeli-German citizen, who had completed his military service in the IDF.
Another friend from his university days, Jakub Klepek, described him as a 'man of purpose', who loved nothing better than discussing politics, religion and books.
Mr Lischinsky was a founding member of a sister organisation to the German-Israeli Society, promoting joint projects between young people from both countries.
According to friends, this approach was inimical to his concept of diplomacy: not just promoting Israel's message abroad, but trying to build partnerships and understanding.
As a researcher in the Middle East division of the Washington DC embassy, this took the form of passionate advocacy for the Abraham Accords, the set of agreements brokered by the first Trump administration that normalised relations between Israel, the UAE and other Arab states.
In doing so, he appears to have been building links on the Right of the US foreign policy establishment.
Indeed, Zineb Riboua, a research fellow at the Conservative think tank the Hudson institute, posted on X this week that it was at an event hosted by the Republican Senator Ted Cruz that Mr Lischinsky met the love of his life, a 26-year-old Jewish US citizen from Kansas who helped organise missions and visits by delegations to Israel.
On Friday, the former presidential candidate posted an emoji of a shattered heart, saying: 'Absolutely heartbreaking. Two beautiful lives murdered by unmitigated evil.'
For her part, Ms Riboua, said: 'Yaron Lischinsky was the finest friend I've ever had, brilliant, kind and endlessly thoughtful.
'A devout Christian and a gifted linguist, he spoke German, Hebrew, and Japanese.
'He was full of curiosity and always brimming with ideas.
'I don't think we ever had a conversation that didn't leave me inspired to write something new.'
On his LinkedIn profile, Mr Lischinsky described himself as an 'ardent' believer in peace-building.
Others were swift to point out that the event at the Capital Jewish Museum outside which he and Ms Milgrim were so ruthlessly gunned down had been to discuss how multi-faith organisations can bring aid to war-torn regions such as Gaza.
Son of a Jewish father and a Christian mother, the diplomat was an enthusiastic member of a sect described by some as Messianic Jews, those who self-identify as Jews but who accept the divinity of Jesus Christ and the concept of salvation – beliefs that put them firmly in the Christian camp, according to mainstream Jews.
He worshipped weekly at the Melech Ha'Melachim in Jerusalem, where a friend, David Boskey, described him as 'softly-spoken but not timid. Always smiling. Always volunteering.'
Ronen Shoval, the dean of the Argaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Jerusalem, where Mr Lischinsky participated in a year-long course in classical liberal conservative thought, told The New York Times: 'He was a devout Christian, but he had tied his fate to the people of Israel.'
Due to the actions of a lone fanatic, Mr Lischinsky's fate was not to walk arm-in-arm with his beloved Sarah through the ancient groves of his youth, perhaps even to propose to her there – he had already bought the ring.
Instead, at 6pm local time on Sunday, just up the hill from the birthplace of John the Baptist at Ein Karem, he will be buried there.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer, along with other world leaders who recently criticised Israel's actions in Gaza, faces the uncomfortable accusation that, in doing so, he fed the 'incitement' that leads to anti-Jewish hate.
'They are both gone. And the loss is immeasurable,' wrote Ms Riboua.
'The world has lost two extraordinary souls. And I have lost a dear friend who made every moment brighter.'
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