By Vanguard Staff
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A leading Jewish anti-death penalty group is calling on federal prosecutors to reject capital punishment for Elias Rodriguez, the 30-year-old man charged in the May 21 fatal shooting of Israeli Embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum.
“L’chaim! Jews Against the Death Penalty,” a group with nearly 4,000 members, issued a public appeal this week urging U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi not to seek the death penalty in the case. The group also condemned a letter signed by 15 members of the Israeli Knesset that called on the U.S. government to pursue what the group described as a “barbaric form of ‘justice.’”
The shooting, which killed embassy employees Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky, was widely condemned as an antisemitic and politically motivated attack. But the group argues that executing Rodriguez would only elevate his profile and possibly incite further violence by turning him into a martyr.
“A death sentence for Mr. Rodriguez will only increase his platform for espousing hatred,” the group said in its statement. “This reality is just one of the reasons we oppose the death penalty in all cases, but especially for killers with political motivations.”
The group invoked the legacy of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who opposed capital punishment in all circumstances. “I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death,” Wiesel once said, a quote highlighted by the group’s co-founder Cantor Michael Zoosman.
Zoosman, a board-certified chaplain and former Jewish prison chaplain, emphasized that the opposition to capital punishment includes the most extreme and reviled offenders—from Nazi war criminals to recent mass shooters. “For members of L’chaim, this stance applies universally; there are no exceptions,” he said.
While traditional Jewish law allows for capital punishment under strict constraints, Zoosman and his colleagues point to Talmudic opinions that deeply restricted its use. He cited Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Tarfon, who famously said that if they had served on the Sanhedrin—the ancient Jewish high court—no one would ever have been executed.
The group also warned of disturbing historical echoes in America’s modern execution methods. “Lethal injection, the most common form of execution in the U.S., traces its origins to Nazi Germany’s Aktion T4 program,” the group wrote, referring to the Third Reich’s use of chemicals to kill disabled individuals deemed “unworthy of life.”
In addition to lethal injection, the statement noted that some U.S. states have built or are using gas chambers—including one in Arizona that employs Zyklon B, the gas used at Auschwitz. “No Jewish argument about the death penalty in the 21st century should ignore these proven, direct Nazi legacies,” the group stated.
Rather than pursue more executions, the group urged the U.S. to honor the memories of the victims by rejecting the death penalty and embracing life-affirming values. “We must end the cycle of violence – not perpetuate it,” Zoosman wrote.
“L’chaim – to Life!” the statement concluded.
