For D.C.’s Jewish Community, Shooting Outside Jewish Museum a ‘Nightmare That We’ve All Been Afraid Of’

Outside the Capital Jewish Museum, in an area of Washington known for its courthouses, mourners did what they could on Thursday to pay their respects to the two Israeli Embassy employees who were shot and killed there the night before.

A group calling themselves “Christians and Jews Against Hate” came together, holding Israeli flags, in a sign of solidarity. Some people left handwritten notes about how sorry they were about the shooting that killed Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and his girlfriend, Sarah Milgrim, who was 26. Others, including lawmakers, left flowers.

Many left tears. Some remained defiant.

“I think these acts are meant to scare people, to frighten them away,” said James Rose, a health care consultant who drove in from a Virginia suburb, dressed in a blue shirt with the Israeli flag on the front. “And I think being present and visible is one of the best ways to push back against this type of action.”

The Greater Washington area is home to several hundred thousand Jewish people, making it one of the biggest Jewish population centers in the country. It’s a region now equally heartbroken and shaken by the killings, which the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, described as “targeted anti-Semitic violence” and an act of terror.

A day after a man with a history of pro-Palestinian activism shot the two embassy workers — a couple about to become engaged to be married — many in the community are still processing what happened. Mr. Lischinsky and Ms. Milgrim had been leaving the museum where the American Jewish Committee was hosting a reception for young diplomats.

“This could have been one of our kids,” said Rabbi Shira Stutman, the founder of the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington, who came to the site with a fellow rabbi to pray.