KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Robert Milgrim remembered his daughter Sarah Thursday as a “wonderful girl who was as close to perfect as any human could be.”
Sarah and her boyfriend, Yaron Lischinsky, were shot and killed Wednesday night outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., after an event organized by the American Jewish Committee.
Milgrim said he and his wife, Nancy, received a call in the middle of the night from the Israeli ambassador who delivered the news.
“She had a passion for learning. She had a passion for the environment, and she had a passion for Israel,” Milgrim said in an interview Thursday with NBC News.
Sarah Milgrim graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School before attending the University of Kansas. She graduated in the spring of 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in environmental studies and a minor in anthropology.
She was active in future leadership programs across Kansas City.
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Her father said that following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in Israel, Sarah started working at the Israeli embassy in Washington. The American Jewish Committee said Sarah Milgrim was working to advance relations in the Middle East and North Africa.
Robert Milgrim said shortly after she started working at the embassy, she met Lischinsky and the two struck up a relationship.
“They made each other very happy,” Robert Milgrim said. “We grew to love him also. They were perfect for each other.”
Robert said the ambassador told him overnight that Lischinsky had recently purchased an engagement ring and planned to propose to Sarah on a trip planned for this coming weekend to Jerusalem, where the couple was going to meet Lischinsky’s parents.
In 2017, she spoke with KSHB 41 News reporter Lexi Sutter in response to antisemitic graffiti spray-painted on a building at Shawnee Mission East High School. Sarah, then a senior in high school, said she had already worried about going to her synagogue, “and now I have to worry about my safety at my school and that shouldn’t be a thing.”
Her father said Sarah had experienced antisemitism and “was very strong in dealing with it.”
“I can’t say it bounced off her, but she accepted it,” her father said. “She understood it and tried to be a good example so that maybe there would be less antisemitism. It didn’t turn out very well for her.”
Milgrim said his daughter loved animals and the environment. He said she became a beekeeper in Lawrence while attending KU and volunteered at a local animal rescue organization.
"She loved creating life and sustaining life," Milgrim said.
Milgrim said part of Wednesday night's event included Sarah working with other embassies and humanitarian aid groups to find ways to help Gazans.
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