This past weekend, one of my friends from CLTC came to Washington, DC to attend the Schusterman Advocacy Institute High School Summit (AIPAC). She arrived early and was able to come to my chapter program. When asking her about it, she said: “The Program was exciting, and I liked seeing the different perspectives between my chapter’s programs and Ko’ach’s.” Anna Schulman, from Mayim Chayim BBG #605 NER #18, had been S’ganit of her chapter for the last year and has had a lot of experience in programming. Getting to see Ko’achs program inspired Anna with ideas that she could take home to her chapter. Anna also got to experience a D.C. Council tradition, post-program food. Anna enjoyed going out for food after the program and thought it was a smart idea to bring back home. She added that “I hope I can attend more programs in the future because it made me self aware and interested in keeping in contact with the girls I met.”  There is a lot of learning from going to programs not just from different regions but different chapters in your region/council as well. 

Following the program, we went to AIPAC High School Summit, where we spent the weekend learning about American Israel Public Affairs. AIPAC partners with many Jewish Day schools, synagogues, national youth groups (such as BBYO), and teen leadership organizations to bring 400 high school student leaders from across the country to Washington, D.C. We got to participate in Israel advocacy and political activism training. The goal of the Summit is to educate students on the U.S.-Israel relationship and to help them become effective pro-Israel political activists on and beyond their school campus. We ended the Summit lobbying our Congressman about bills that advocate for the United States to support Israel.

Overall, this weekend was very special to me because I was not only able to lobby congress on some of the essential pressing political issues that pertain to Israel but also was able to see a friend that I dearly missed from CLTC.