Hope and solidarity were the themes Thursday morning as the Capital Jewish Museum reopened one week after a gunman fatally shot two Israeli Embassy aides leaving an event there.
Speakers including Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser, Jewish community leaders and interfaith clergy members emphasized a message of fighting antisemitism and staying resilient in the face of hatred.
The museum’s mission is to educate about the D.C. Jewish experience and serve as a place for learning and reflection, leaders said at the event.
Chris Wolf, the president of CJM’s board of directors, said it is vital to reopen the museum’s doors so that this work can continue.
“Today’s reopening is not simply a return to normal — it is an act of resilience,” Wolf told attendees of the Thursday morning ceremony. “It is a declaration that we will not allow hate to silence our voices or diminish our commitment to building a better future.”
In her remarks, Bowser emphasized the importance of reopening CJM: “We have to live our missions.”
Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt of Adas Israel Congregation said this reopening is “exactly what our city, our country and our world needs” to continue telling Jewish stories. Among the three local faith leaders joining Holtzblatt on stage, Rev. Thomas Bowen of Shiloh Baptist Church of Washington spoke to the need to protect communities as well as tell their stories.
“Reopening is more than a ceremony,” Bowen addressed the crowd. “It’s a defiant act of hope, a declaration that … culture still endures and that justice is worth pursuing.”
Wolf dedicated the museum’s future work to Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, the two victims of the May 21 shooting.
Other speakers shared how the previous week’s shooting affected them personally.
“From the first moment that I met Sarah, I knew that she was a special person,” Joshua Maxey, the executive director of Bet Mishpachah, said, describing the 26-year-old as a “true public servant.”
Sue Stolov, the president of American Jewish Committee Washington, had given closing remarks at the May 21 young diplomats’ reception mere minutes before the shooter gunned down Milgrim and Lischinsky.
“I left the [museum] building at five minutes to nine by myself in the dark,” Stolov said. “Six minutes after I passed that spot, two people were dead. It could have been me.”
She denounced the antisemitic rhetoric that many believe led to the attack.
“The young people attending this event were targeted because they attended a Jewish event or because they were Jewish or they were perceived to be Jewish,” Stolov said. “There has been a dramatic increase in the use of rhetoric demonizing Jews and Jewish organizations, and this has got to stop.
“We cannot separate the violence from the rhetoric that fuels hate and conspiracy against Jews.”
Dr. Beatrice Gurwitz, the executive director of CJM, thanked the mayor, community leaders and first responders for attending the reopening ceremony.
“We feel the embrace of so many overlapping communities: our closest neighbors, our museum colleagues, our Jewish community, our interfaith community,” she said. “The outpouring of support from all of you has strengthened our whole team.”
The interfaith speakers’ message of solidarity with D.C.’s Jewish community meant a lot to attendees Amanda Katz of the Jewish Coalition Against Domestic Abuse and Rachel Feinstein of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington.
“In my work, I have been there for a lot of different folks with all different identities, and when I’ve called out in pain to my colleagues, I haven’t felt the same reciprocation of support and understanding,” Katz told Washington Jewish Week. “So to have this kind of display is very meaningful to me.”
“One thing that I’ve found to be very painful is having to explain why something is an act of Jew hatred,” Feinstein added. “[We had] a group of leaders and community in this room today [to whom] you don’t even have to explain and carry that burden; they already know and they’re calling it out.”
Mark Kelner, an artist whose work is permanently displayed on the museum’s second-floor exhibit, was the first visitor through the doors at noon.
“[CJM] is not an art museum or a history museum, but it is a museum of community, a museum of visibility,” Kelner said. “It’s something that I wanted to show up for because I didn’t want the future of this museum to be clouded by the events of last week.
“There’s an incredible story here inside this museum that needs to be explored, that hundreds of people work towards. And I don’t want the events of a crazy person to diminish that.”
Gary Arlen, a Bethesda resident and a member of CJM since its 2023 opening, said he visited the museum to pay his respects to Milgrim and Lischinsky.
“I was heartbroken when I heard the news,” Arlen said.
Community members placed rocks, flowers and candles outside of the museum in memoriam of Milgrim and Lischinsky. Immediately inside the museum is a table — in between smiling portraits of both victims — with tribute books for visitors to contribute to.
“I think this is a beautiful way to honor the memory, to honor the work they were doing,” Gabi Silver, a D.C. resident who visited the museum shortly after its opening, said.
