Jewish community is an act of resistance

Rest in peace Yaron and Sarah. May their memories be a blessing.

Late Wednesday night, a young Jewish couple, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgram, were murdered outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. after attending a community event hosted by AJC. They were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem.

Yaron and Sarah were killed for doing what so many of us do every week: showing up in Jewish spaces.

What a reminder of how dangerous it is just to live Jewishly. To attend an event at a Jewish museum, to go to synagogue at Tree of Life in Pittsburgh, to shop at a kosher grocery store in Jersey City. To walk into a deli, a JCC, a school.

I’m not religious, but I host Shabbat dinners as my job. I’m a young patron of the Jewish Museum. I buy challah from Breads Bakery and jelly donuts from Orwashers. And yet, these ordinary parts of our weekly routines are enough to make us targets.

Antisemitism doesn’t ask how Jewish you are. It doesn’t care whether you had a bat mitzvah or keep kosher. And no matter how we live it, we all deserve to live Jewishly without fear.

After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018, I called my safta. She told me not to be sad because I can’t change anything. “The world is bad. They hate the Jews. It’s going to be forever like this.” It was heartbreaking then to hear how hopeless she felt. It’s even harder now, knowing she died without seeing anything change.

She wasn’t wrong to recognize that there will always be people who hate us. But hopelessness and resignation can’t be our response.

We can’t control their hate, but we can control how we show up for each other. And the most powerful response is to live visibly and proudly, build more Jewish spaces and communities, and refuse to disappear.

Shabbat Club was built for that reason. So we will keep showing up, keep celebrating, and stay connected. Every time we come together, it’s an act of resistance.

But today, we mourn Yaron and Sarah. May their memories be a blessing.

If you’re looking for support system—whether you’re feeling overwhelmed, angry, upset, or just need someone to help fight antisemites online—we’re here for you.

Shabbat Shalom. Love you all.

Morgan