GUEST OF HONOR

Mike Johnson to host brother of Capital Jewish Museum shooting victim at State of the Union

Hanan Lischinsky, whose brother Yaron was killed alongside his girlfriend in May, will be a guest at Trump’s address

Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) (L) speaks with Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) (R) after a memorial vigil held outside of the U.S. Capitol on June 10, 2025 in Washington, DC.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will bring Hanan Lischinsky, the brother of an Israeli Embassy staffer shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., last May, as his guest to President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday evening.

Lischinsky is the brother of Yaron Lischinsky, who was killed alongside Sarah Milgrim, his girlfriend and a fellow embassy staffer, while exiting a museum event for young diplomats and Jewish professionals hosted by the American Jewish Committee; the two were gunned down by a suspect seen on video shouting “free Palestine” and “I did it for Gaza” after the attack.

Lischinsky and Milgrim met while working at the embassy. Lischinsky’s family said he had planned to propose to Milgrim on an upcoming trip to Jerusalem, which was scheduled for the month after their murders.

“On May 21, 2025, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were murdered on the streets of Washington, D.C. These two young diplomats of the Israeli Embassy, devoted to the cause of peace and to one another, had their futures stolen in a violent act of antisemitism,” Johnson said in a statement.

“Yaron’s brother, Hanan Lischinsky, has shown remarkable courage in shedding light on the extremism that took his brother’s life,” the statement continued. “I am honored to invite him as my guest for President Trump’s State of the Union address.”

Lischinsky and Milgrim’s murders were met with widespread calls from pro-Israel voices in the U.S. for critics of Israel to call out and condemn antisemitism within the anti-Israel movement. A coalition of 42 Jewish organizations described the murders in a statement at the time as “the direct consequence of rising antisemitic incitement in places such as college campuses, city council meetings, and social media that has normalized hate and emboldened those who wish to do harm.”

The alleged shooter, Elias Rodriguez, was charged in late May with two counts of first-degree murder, the murder of foreign officials, causing death with a firearm and discharging a firearm in a violent crime. The Department of Justice went on to charge Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Chicago native, with nine additional counts, including federal hate crimes charges, in August. Prosecutors are still considering whether to pursue the death penalty.

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