April 4 • 2019 39
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he pronounced correctly, I have to 
admit). 
The warmest, loudest and longest 
reception went to Nikki Haley, the 
former U.N. ambassador. She was 
clearly the darling of this crowd. 
She launched into a pointed critique 
of the U.N. and the anti-Israel bias 
(hatred) among so many of its mem-
bers, and often provided “inside” 
information on what’
s happening 
there. She explained that many 
ambassadors of anti-Israel countries 
“know better,” but they “have to 
cater to their people.” She noted that 
at the U.N., “It was like everyone 
was bullying the kid in the corner” 
(Israel) and she “just had to stand up 
and fight.”
Later in the long day, the roster 
featured a full range of political 
speakers, from Secretary of State 
Michael Pompeo to Sen. Schumer to 
a British member of parliament, all 
eloquently expressing their support 
for Israel. Pompeo asked why none 
of the other 192 countries in the 
U.N. have their right to exist ques-
tioned. “Israel should be emulated,” 
he said, “not ostracized.”
It was a long, emotional day. I 
ended the night trying to recall 
everything I learned, but my 
thoughts lingered with the people of 
Israel on this sad day.

MARCH 26
We started with a large gener-
al session that included Speaker 
Pelosi, Ambassador to Israel David 
Friedman, Sen. McConnell, Sen. 
Bob Menendez and Prime Minister 
Netanyahu via live video — he cut 

short his visit in the aftermath of the 
Hamas rocket incident. And then, 
around 11 a.m., the real work began 
— we headed over to Congress to 
lobby.
That word “lobby” is so misun-
derstood in the context of AIPAC. 
Critics like to advance a false narra-
tive that the organization is a behe-
moth, and all it has to do is snap 
its fingers and lawmakers shiver 
in their boots. In reality, it gets its 
work done through a lot of effort, a 
commitment to bipartisanship and 
an American public that is decidedly 
pro-Israel.
We headed to Capitol Hill to 
attend prearranged meetings with 
members of Congress and their 
staffs. There’
s a key Israel-related 
bill pending (aid to Israel, anti-BDS) 
that the AIPAC attendees had been 
prepped on, and we were ready to 
get to work. I won’
t detail the discus-
sions at Congress other than to say 
our reception was extremely warm 
and positive. I saw the irreplaceable 
importance of person-to-person 
contact.
With the conference concluded, 
attendees returned home, including 
to Detroit, making a collective state-
ment that the US-Israel relationship 
must remain rock solid. 
Tomorrow, the work continues. ■

Mark Jacobs is the AIPAC Michigan chair for 
African American Outreach, a co-director 
of the Coalition for Black and Jewish Unity, 
a board member of the Jewish Community 
Relations Council-AJC and the director 
of Jewish Family Service’
s Legal Referral 
Committee.

Norma Dorman, Rabbi Rachel Shere and Julie Wiener

Celebrating the 2019 Honorees

SUNDAY
, MAY 19
Luncheon 11:30am

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248-592-5026 or btryon@jslmi.org

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