Sarah Milgrim, one of two Israeli Embassy staffers fatally shot last week in an apparently politically motivated 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 temple she attended as a child with her family.
Rabbi Doug Alpert of Congregation Kol Ami in Kansas City, Missouri, gave an impassioned eulogy as scores of attendees sniffled and softly sobbed.
Alpert first drew laughs as he relayed early childhood memories from her parents, Bob and Nancy Milgrim, including her love of hiding as a young child that earned her the label of “sneaky.” They also recalled her as creative, funny and preternaturally empathetic to animals. She was a vegetarian for most of her childhood and once saved an abandoned baby bunny using her mother’s oven mitts, which she promptly then returned to their kitchen drawer unwashed.
But laug …