JCPA Statement on Shooting of Israeli Embassy Aides in Washington

Jewish Council for Public Affairs CEO Amy Spitalnick released the following statement:

“We are horrified, angry, and heartbroken over the murders of two Israeli Embassy staff members outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

Make no mistake: antisemitic hate inevitably leads to antisemitic violence. Anyone who claims to believe in the dignity and rights of all people has an obligation to name this for what it is — vile and violent antisemitic terror — and to speak out against the increasingly-normalized bigotry that fueled this attack. The fact that this attack took place outside a Jewish American Heritage Month event, intended to celebrate Jewish identity, casts a particularly dark shadow over a time meant to honor our community.

Long before last night’s violence, Jews were feeling vulnerable and scared. Antisemitism has skyrocketed over the past decade: from antisemitic white supremacist attacks in Pittsburgh, Charlottesville, Poway, and beyond; to hate crimes targeting Jews on the streets; to the dramatic rise in post-October 7^th antisemitism that coopts the just cause of Palestinian rights to target Jews around the globe.

This antisemitism undermines the very fabric of our democracy, sowing distrust and pitting communities against one another, normalizing extremism and violence, and ultimately making Jews – and so many others – less safe. It requires a whole-of-society response that both steels our institutions and communities against this violence and ultimately builds the resiliency necessary to reject such extremism and hate.

Our hearts are with the Embassy staff, our colleagues at the American Jewish Committee and the Museum, and all impacted by this horror. May Yaron and Sarah’s memories be for a blessing – and a call to action as we work to counter antisemitism wherever it exists.”