INTERVIEW: Rabbi Mark Rosenberg of Chesed Shel Emes, Ensuring Kavod Hameis at DC Terror Attack

Rabbi Mark Rosenberg of Florida’s Chesed Shel Emes spoke with Belaaz about his efforts to ensure Kavod Hameis after Wednesday’s horrific terror attack at a Jewish museum in Washington DC.

Sarah Milgrim Hy”d and Yaron Lischinsky were brutally murdered in a hail of 21 bullets by a gunman, believed to be pro-Hamas Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, who wrote violent messages on social media prior to the attack. He is a member of far-left, socialist political groups that celebrate terrorism.

Rabbi Rosenberg worked together with Attorney General Pam Bondi and other officals, while the site was still a crime scene.

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Your team was involved in ensuring kavod hameis, removing blood and remains; what else did you do?

Everything—clearing the remains, bringing one of the victims to Israel, and the other to Kansas, and cleaning up the scene. Early in the morning it was raining, so we had to jump on it.

It was an active crime scene. So how do you get access to do that if you’re not law enforcement?

Baruch Hashem, we have good connections. But this particular time I was—I was very at ease knowing that we have people like Senator Scott from Florida, who is very familiar. Pam Bondi, the AG, who’s extremely familiar from the Parkland shooting, as you remember. She used to be the AG of Florida, working under the Governor. So they were extremely, super helpful. I reached out to Senator Scott last night before we headed out, and I had the confidence that we were going to be able to do what we needed to do for kavod hameis. And then early in the morning, the AG called me, and she said, “Whatever you need.” She said, “I’ll meet you on the scene.” She herself came out to the scene to be there while we were cleaning up, making sure everything ran smoothly. So that’s how we were able to get access.

In addition to that, like a miracle, the Metropolitan Police Department, who are completely unfamiliar with these types of things, they literally just came out and said, “Whatever you need.” They walked me into the crime scene. They drove me around to get supplies. And they understood it was still an active crime scene, like you said, but they understood that we just needed to clean up the blood and remains, and that part had already been processed. Plus, it was raining, so we had to move quickly. By the time I left there and went to the Israeli embassy, it was still a crime scene. Now I’m sure it’s over.

How did you come to be involved if you’re in Florida? Was there nobody in D.C. that could do it?

I don’t know; I don’t think D.C. is used to these types of things in general, for something of this magnitude. But I get phone calls from all over because of my involvement with state chaplaincies. Two weeks ago, I testified over here for Rick Scott’s “Never Again” movement against antisemitism. I testified on the Senate floor. We talked about hate, we talked about campuses. And so, you know, the Sheriff’s Office from Florida was here, and Holocaust survivor David Schechter—it’s kind of like everything is intertwined. So when something happens—because it’s not just a burglary in Washington, it’s an attack on Jewish people.

So it doesn’t matter if it’s Washington, Florida, New York—for congressmen, senators, and I’m sure the same goes for the President—this is a national movement now. We have all these demonstrations, rallies, campus protests, and it basically spread so much hate that when something happens in one state, it affects others too. By the way, if I’m in Florida and something happens in another state, we step up. Like this morning, the entire Florida Highway Patrol, the sheriff’s offices, the local police departments—everybody stepped up, even though it didn’t happen in Florida, because, you know, you’re afraid of a copycat or whatever it is.

So, the way I see it is, I get these phone calls all the time when it’s about hate. If this had been a car accident, that wouldn’t be the case. Even if somebody would have died chas ve’shalom; then maybe I’d be called just for cleanup. But then it’s not really a crime scene. So I think that’s why I got the phone call, you know, last night. It was around midnight when I got the call.

Did you deal with the families of the people who were murdered?

Kind of. The families weren’t really here. His family was coming from Israel, and her family was in Kansas, as you know. So they weren’t here. So we dealt with them by phone, through the embassy and through other ways. But they had people who represented the families, whether for identification, getting things out of the house, and so on.