Sarah and Yaron are dead. They were not murdered in Israel. They were not killed on the frontlines of the Jewish homeland. They were slaughtered in Washington, D.C.—the capital of the free world.
Leading up to their blood spilled onto the pavement of America’s capital, Jewish “leaders” were drinking wine in ballrooms, and influencers were uploading curated statements from New York rooftops—classless, riding in limos to Zaka galas, chasing attention, self-worth and relevance while real Jews were dying and fighting. This isn’t a metaphor. This is the state of Jewish leadership in 2025.
4 View gallery
Israeli embassy staffers Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, killed in Washington terror attack
In the face of a global Jewish crisis—with antisemitism exploding from college campuses to cultural institutions, from city streets to Congress—our organizations chose optics over outcomes. They chose PR over protection. They handed platforms to influencers with no military training, no ideological backbone and no understanding of Jewish history. Their only qualification? Engagement.
Let’s name the betrayal: Jewish leadership today is complicit in our vulnerability. They knew. They all knew. The warning signs weren’t subtle. “From the River to the Sea” was chanted in Ivy League quads. Hamas flags flew in New York parades. Jewish students were physically attacked and harassed. But when October 7 shattered every illusion, when Israeli blood soaked the ground of our eternal homeland, our leadership responded not with strategic mobilization, but with brunch panels. They didn’t prepare. They posted.
And then came the influencer economy. We watched, in real time, as opportunists hijacked Jewish tragedy to build brands. They flew to Israel—not to fight, not to serve, not to mourn—but to film content. They came for the photo ops. For the speaking tours. For the Instagram reels with Hebrew captions they couldn’t read.
4 View gallery
Police at scene of deadly Washington shooting attack
(Photo: TASOS KATOPODIS / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
And many were paid to do so. Not by donors. Not by philanthropists. But by the Israeli taxpayer. While Israeli children were being buried, while citizens were being drafted, while trauma therapy centers overflowed, our national resources were diverted to fly first-class tickets for American influencers born into privilege. Children of millionaires, fake philanthropists, Ivy League alumni, trust fund babies—they were handed the sacred currency of a nation at war, and they cashed it in for relevance.
It’s not just disgraceful. It’s theft. This grotesque redistribution of pain—where working-class Israelis fight and suffer while wealthy American Jews collect luxury perks to “show support”—is the influencer economy at its most parasitic. The suffering of the Israeli people was not a marketing opportunity. It was not a tour. It was not an aesthetic. And it damn sure wasn’t a sponsored post. This isn’t just tone-deaf. It’s grotesque. And the institutions enabling it? They’re worse.
Tens of millions of dollars have been raised since October 7. How much went toward Jewish self-defense? Toward training Jewish communities in firearms? Toward building a real security infrastructure that can withstand the mobs now gathering outside our synagogues, schools and homes? None. They fight hashtags when we need to be fighting for survival.
4 View gallery
Pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the White House
(Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
Let’s speak the hard truth: Any Jewish organization that is not actively promoting weapons training, Krav Maga and organized self-defense today is betraying the Jewish people.
If you’re not helping Jews get trained, get armed and get ready, you are irrelevant—or worse, dangerous. Because every time you distract our people with another gala, another influencer partnership, another legacy award, you delay the one thing that can actually prevent another massacre: Jewish strength.
We don’t need more statements. We need weapons. We don’t need curated grief. We need courage. And we certainly don’t need influencers who cry on camera one day and dine with enemies of our people the next.
Let me say it without euphemism: if you are steering the Jewish people away from strength, you are steering them toward slaughter.
4 View gallery
Silent memorial outside the White House for Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim
(Photo: Daniel Edelson)
Sarah and Yaron should be alive. Their blood cries out—not from Gaza, not from Sderot, but from the streets of the capital of the United States. Their deaths are the ultimate indictment of the American Jewish fantasy that safety can be outsourced, that press releases are a shield and that you can gala your way through a global intifada.
We need a Jewish revolution. We need Hebraization—not just of language, but of mindset. A generation that thinks like Israelis, trains like Israelis and dares to survive as Jews. A community that values sovereignty over approval, strength over sympathy, readiness over rhetoric.
Let Sarah and Yaron’s deaths be the final wake-up call. Let them end the era of illusions. Let them end the era of stolen martyrdom and sponsored solidarity.
Enough galas. Enough influencers. Arm the Jews. Train the Jews. Protect the Jews. Before we bury more.
- Adam Scott Bellos is the Founder of The Israel Innovation Fund (TIIF) and the author of Never Again Is Not Enough: Why Hebraization Is the Only Way to Save the Diaspora.