SAR students, from all grades, represented their school at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. Led by Mr. Yeshaya, the students participated in three days of breakout sessions, speeches and lobbying local members of Congress.

Sunday contained a general session in the morning, highlighted by the Prime Minister of Albania, followed by a day filled with far smaller breakout sessions to devoted to a wide array of different topics pertaining to Israel broadly. The day was capped off with another general session, this time headlined by the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, who has decided to follow the lead of President Trump and move his country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Monday brought a similar schedule, with both morning and evening general sessions, containing a loaded slate of speakers such as Vice President Mike Pence, Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, Senate Minority Leader Sen. Charles Schumer, House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy. The address by Ambassador Haley particularly galvanized the AIPAC crowd, both as a result of her speech itself and for her work so far in the UN, which has been very favorable to the Israeli cause.

The final day of AIPAC’s policy was also kick-started by a general session at the Washington Convention Center, with the main speech of the morning given by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who brought attention to all of Israel’s great contributions to the world and how they all could be threatened by the growing Iranian presence along Israel’s northern border. He concluded by calling on the AIPAC attendees to urge their congressional representation to continue to fund and support their only true ally in the Middle East. Many left the building and did just that, going to Capitol Hill to directly lobby their members of Congress to strengthen the already robust American-Israeli relationship.

The attending SAR students returned from the trip well informed and more passionate to get involved in supporting and protecting the Jewish State.