As I sat backstage getting my microphone adjusted for the tenth time before walking into the spotlight, the butterflies in my stomach fluttered more strongly than ever before.
I was preparing to step in front of 16,000 Pro-Israel activists at AIPAC’s (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) annual Policy Conference in Washington D.C. Audience members included delegates from all fifty states, people of all ages, ethnicities, and religions. My twin sister, Leeza, and I would be addressing the crowd during the same morning session as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and UN Ambassador Samantha Power. While our address would not be nearly as long or important as theirs, the message we were asked to deliver had a sense of significance as well.
Leeza and I have been involved with Israel action and AIPAC since high school, and over time our enthusiasm has influenced our family to get involved as well. This year at the AIPAC Policy Conference, we brought along three generations of family members, twelve members in all, as active participants in strengthening the U.S.- Israel alliance. In our remarks during the plenary session, we wanted to share our experience in building support for AIPAC within our family in order to encourage other delegates to build their own circle of family and friends for next year’s Policy Conference in March, 2016.
While sitting backstage amongst the influential political leaders and important figures addressing the crowd that same day, I was more than a bit overwhelmed. At the same time, I was also able to internalize the importance of this moment and to focus on the message I would soon deliver. I started to consider who all of these people in the audience were. Why have they all put their lives on hold for a few days to be one of 16,000 faces in this sea of humanity? I started to think about the role that AIPAC plays and what exactly has attracted Jews and non- Jews from every imaginable walk of life to be sitting out there in that massive audience.
While there are multiple politically oriented Pro- Israel organizations in the U.S., AIPAC is the most prominent, largest, and most well known of them all. AIPAC does not endorse candidates like NORPAC, another Pro- Israel organization, or have opinions on internal Israeli politics in the way that J- Street does. It is strictly a bipartisan organization that works with members of Congress and the U.S. Administration in order to educate members on Pro-Israel legislation and help contribute to a strong U.S.- Israel relationship. This is a relationship that benefits both countries in many ways, and it is in the United States’ best interest that the Jewish state remain safe, strong, and secure.
There are multiple ways in which a person can be involved with AIPAC. Aside from working for them, a person can donate money to an organization, join their board of trustees, or attend conferences and lobbying trips. However, while there are ample opportunities for people to get involved, only recently have large numbers of Orthodox community members become actively engaged at AIPAC.
While AIPAC and the Pro-Israel Lobby were officially founded in 1963, Jewish- American citizens have been advocating for Israel since before its inception as a state. It is said that one reason President Harry Truman so quickly granted diplomatic recognition to the new state of Israel in 1948 was due to the petitioning of his former business partner and friend, Eddie Jacobson. In fact, it was Jacobson who convinced President Truman to meet with Dr. Hayim Weizmann, the first President of Israel. Jewish Americans followed in Eddie Jacobson’s footsteps and began to find ways to facilitate the strong bond between the biggest democracy in the world and the only democracy in the Middle East. However, while there has historically been some representation of Orthodox Jews in the various Pro- Israel lobbies, both AIPAC’s leadership and membership consisted primarily of non-observant Jews.
The paucity of Orthodox involvement in the pro-Israel lobby is best understood through the lens of history. In the early years of its inception, the pro- Israel lobby was viewed as a conference of secular Jews, and arguably, the secular Jews preferred to keep it that way. There was a widely held view that Orthodox Jews would not be additive to the effort given that they were generally perceived to be closed- minded and lacking a global perspective. This can be paralleled to the emergence of the Zionist movement in Europe during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At the beginning of the Zionist movement, Orthodox Jews were not “Zionists” because they viewed the movement strictly as a political, nationalistic initiative. The Orthodox population was not particularly politically inclined, nor were they encouraged by the secular nationalistic Jews to join in the movement. The two groups were completely unaffiliated with each other. It took the leadership of prominent Orthodox Rabbis to educate a sector of Orthodox Jewry that the Zionist movement could be both politically nationalistic and aligned with religion. Through their leadership, the Religious Zionist movement was founded and joined forces with the Zionist movement that was already working to establish a Jewish homeland.
Fast forward about a century later and today we find the American Orthodox community finding it’s way into the Pro- Israel political arena in the same fashion they emerged as Religious Zionists a century earlier. This transformation is not happening by chance but is being facilitated by the forward thinking leaders in the Orthodox community. Indeed, the senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Jacob in Beverly Hills, Rabbi Steven Weil, who is now Vice President of the Orthodox Union, initiated a connection between five Orthodox synagogues and AIPAC. Rabbi Weil established a four-point model, which the synagogues committed to pursue.
Each congregation was obligated to: 1. start a political network , 2. form a club of leaders in the community from every age group in order to reach more people, 3. become not only donors but active members of AIPAC, and finally 4. attend Policy Conference.
This model proved extremely successful in engaging congregants to become politically active, and the initiative spread to many other synagogues across the U.S. Today, there are about eighty- five congregations in the program, spearheaded by the OU. In the last five to ten years, Orthodox involvement (in AIPAC particularly) has increased significantly, and can be directly credited in large part to this synagogue initiative. Aside from the engagement of Orthodox communal leadership, there has been an influx of general Orthodox membership and engagement at AIPAC. Less than twenty years ago there was only one Orthodox member of the board of trustees of AIPAC. Today, six members of AIPAC’s Board of Trustees are Orthodox. Only a few years ago, AIPAC instated the first Orthodox president.
While AIPAC is not the only Pro- Israel organization, it certainly is a good representation of Israel Activism in the United States and a good case study for active Orthodox involvement. While it is clear that the Orthodox community has made strides in the past ten years and involvement has increased dramatically, there is still room for more.
In the Modern Orthodox community, it is easy to feel connected to Israel and have a sense of contribution to our homeland. Whether it be through Bnei Akiva, attending religious Zionist summer camps, or contributing to an Israeli charity or organization, there is a plethora of ways for us to feel involved. On the Yeshiva University campuses alone we have multiple Israel- oriented clubs and events to choose from. However, specifically as religious Zionist Jews, we need to be more politically involved. Despite all of the effort and the huge contribution many make towards Israel through the outlets mentioned above, we still have a political responsibility towards Israel. We live in a country in which our voices matter and we have the ability to exercise our constitutional rights. Let’s put our first amendment rights to use!
As a community, we need to figure out how to better our political effort. Individuals need to feel a sense of political responsibility, even if they are not politically inclined. An easy way to get politically involved is through lobbying members of Congress. With multiple opportunities to lobby either in our hometowns or in D.C. with AIPAC, NORPAC, or Yeshiva University’s very own YUPAC, this is an achievable means and a rewarding one at that. Our representatives are elected in order to represent us as the constituents, and our interests. It is important to convey Congress members that Israel’s security is an issue we are passionate about.
Is lobbying once or twice a year enough to fulfill our political responsibility? Arguably not, but it is a step.
Let’s increase our attendance to events such as AIPAC Policy Conference, and try to make next years YUPAC mission grow dramatically.
Let’s write letters and call up our representatives.
Let’s make our voices heard.
It is true that there are people who are taking this responsibility upon themselves already and have been for years. Thankfully the security of the America- Israel alliance has been sustained until this point because of them. However, it is our turn specifically as Orthodox Jews to get involved.