Jewish communities are going on high alert following the deadly shooting outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, which killed Israeli Embassy employees Sarah Milgrim and her soon-to-be fiancé, Yaron Lischinsky, on Wednesday night. 

Richard Priem, CEO of the Community Security Service, which trains security teams at synagogues and other institutions, told eJewishPhilanthropy on Thursday that his organization and other security groups would be stepping up their “posture” in the wake of the shooting in case additional attacks had been planned or others are “inspired” to act by this one.

“We’re definitely going to be present, we’re definitely going to do something that increases our posture because anytime there’s an attack, certain people get activated and think, ’Now’s the time,’” Priem said. “But we don’t know yet if there might be a direct, correlated threat.”

Such security measures may include additional guards posted outside buildings, tighter involvement of local law enforcement and increased coordination between different Jewish security groups, such as national ones like the Anti-Defamation League and Secure Communities Network, as well as local ones like New York’s Community Security Initiative or various neighborhood watchdog groups.

Dan Bongino, deputy director of the F.B.I., said on Thursday morning that the shooter, Elias Rodriguez, 30, who was arrested at the scene, was being questioned by Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police, alongside the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. “Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence. Our FBI team is fully engaged and we will get you answers as soon as we can, without compromising additional leads,” he wrote on X.

According to Priem, whose career has been focused on security and countering antisemitism, there remain many unanswered questions about the shooting, particularly if the event was targeted generally because it was a Jewish event taking place at a Jewish location or if the Israeli Embassy employees were specifically targeted by Rodriguez. 

While Priem stressed that both scenarios are deeply troubling, targeting specific individuals would require a higher degree of training, coordination and planning than a “random” antisemitic attack on a Jewish event. In either case, Priem said his organization called for “increased situational awareness” at Jewish institutions going forward, particularly ahead of Shabbat.

“On Thursday, there are people going to services, but Shabbat [is when] many many more Jews will be going to synagogues, and the details about the perpetrator — why he picked this target, how sophisticated the attack was in terms of planning and preparation — all of those factors will have an impact on our posture,” he said.

Milgrim and Lischinsky were standing outside an event at the museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee for young diplomats when they were shot dead by Rodriguez, who claimed responsibility for the crime at the scene. 

An eyewitness to the attack, Paige Siegel, told Jewish Insider that Rodriguez entered the building seconds after the shots were fired, appearing disoriented and panicked. She said that after a few minutes, she and a friend engaged him in conversation, informing him that he was in the Jewish museum. She said the man then started screaming, “I did it, I did it. Free Palestine. I did it for Gaza,” and opened a backpack, withdrawing a red Keffiyeh. She said that an officer, who had already arrived, detained the man and took him outside. Siegel said that she subsequently saw security footage of Milgrim being shot and identified Rodriguez as the shooter.

In a press conference a few hours after the shooting, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Leiter identified Milgrim and Lischinsky as embassy employees and as a young couple who were planning to get engaged next week in Jerusalem — Lischinsky had purchased a ring earlier this week.

Priem noted that his organization was not involved in the security preparations for the AJC event but said he was generally familiar with the museum, which is located a few blocks from the Sixth & I synagogue.

The museum has boosted security because of both the general rise in antisemitism and — more recently — specific safety concerns over a new exhibit about the LGBTQ community. The museum recently received a nonprofit security grant from the city. 

“Jewish institutions all around town, all around the country, are concerned about security due to some very scary incidents that some institutions have faced and because of a climate of antisemitism,” Beatrice Gurwitz, executive director of the museum, told the local NBC affiliate this week. “So, we invest a lot of money in security to make sure that we can keep our doors open to the broad public, that this is a welcoming space, but that people are also safe in this space.”

In light of the attack, Israeli embassies around the world were also put on high alert, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said.