Reform movement opposes death penalty for accused killer of Israeli embassy staffers

Director of Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism sends letter to US attorney general calling capital punishment ‘a stain upon civilization and our religious conscience’

JTA — The Reform movement’s Washington-based advocacy arm is urging US Attorney General Pam Bondi not to seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, in May.

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, called on Bondi to forgo the death penalty in the trial of Elias Rodriguez in a letter sent on Wednesday.

“Despite the pain of Sarah and Yaron’s murders and despite the hateful motivation behind their deaths, we believe that the death penalty is a stain upon civilization and our religious conscience,” Pesner said.

Rodriguez stands accused of shooting Israeli embassy staffers Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim to death outside the Capital Jewish Museum on May 21. He is currently charged with the murder of foreign officials, first-degree murder, and two federal counts of hate crime resulting in death. The federal charges make him eligible for the death penalty if convicted, but prosecutors have not yet said whether they plan to seek it.

In the letter, Pesner — who noted that Milgrim grew up attending a Reform synagogue — said Jewish courts have prohibited capital punishment for “2,000 years,” adding, “Jewish tradition found capital punishment repugnant, and we continue to do so today.”

During the trial of the Tree of Life synagogue shooter, the families of the 11 victims were divided over whether the death penalty was appropriate, and the rabbi of the New Light congregation also wrote to the US attorney general to say he opposed the death penalty. In August 2023, Robert Bowers was sentenced to death for the 2018 mass shooting. He is one of just three people remaining on federal death row after then-president, Joe Biden, commuted the sentences of 37 others before leaving office last year.

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, speaking at Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism’s biennial Consultation on Conscience, April 30, 2017, in Washington, DC. (Courtesy RAC)

Pesner emphasized that he was not calling for a lack of accountability in the case, in which Rodriguez is alleged to have yelled “Free Palestine” after shooting Lischinsky and Milgrim multiple times at point-blank range.

“We pray that as you work to hold the perpetrator accountable for his actions, you ensure he is both punished for his crimes and is never again a threat to Jews or anyone else,” Pesner wrote. “As you do so, do not compound the already deep pain by pursuing the taking of another life.”