D avid Yahudian endured embarrass-ment and fear growing up in Teheran.On walks in the market, his father or-

dered him to tuck the Magen David necklaceinside his shirt and — even worse — called himby an alias, Ali, rather than by his overtly Jew-ish name. Following an Israel-Iran soccermatch at the 1974 Asia Games, he saw fansburning Israeli flags in the parking lot.

Little in his native Iran has changed, saidYahudian, who was in Washington, D.C., onMonday. Last summer, the principal of a pub-lic high school summoned students to thecourtyard for the anti-Israel commemorationknown as Jerusalem Day. She taunted theschool’s lone Jew to demonstrate animositytoward Israel by dousing a proffered Israeliflag in kerosene and lighting it. Intimidated inpublic, the boy, Yahudian’s 16-year-oldnephew, Jacob, obeyed.

As much to exercise the freedoms he’s en-joyed in the United States for the past 30 yearsas to support Israel, Yahudian closed his shopin L.A.’s Jewelry District to attend this week’sannual American Israel Public Affairs Com-mittee (AIPAC) Policy Conference in Wash-ington.

He was hardly alone. California reportedlybrought 1,300 attendees, the largest delegationof any state. Southern Californians were no-ticeable throughout the corridors of the Wal-ter E. Washington Convention Center. Theycame with large synagogue groups, campus or-ganizations, Jewish outreach centers and ontheir own — although, even then, many in thelast group brought along children, grandchil-dren and friends.

On Sunday, L.A. Mayor Antonio Vil-laraigosa delivered the keynote speech at a ses-sion where Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice) andRep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) also spokeand where Milken Community High Schoolsenior Samson Schatz introduced the AIPACboard.

And, perhaps the best tribute of all: OnTuesday, traditionally the morning when at-tendees lobby their members of Congress,Capitol Hill instead came to the state group,with one forum at the convention center fea-turing Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Fein-stein, followed by another with Reps. Harman,Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks), HenryWaxman (D-Los Angeles) and Adam Schiff(D-Pasadena).

Indeed, a Monday morning session was ti-tled, “Why L.A. Matters: The Intersections ofPolitics and Lobbying.”

AIPAC spokesman Josh Block called thelarge, visible L.A. contingent “a real testamentto the strength and diversity of the pro-Israelcommunity — to not only have so many ac-tivists from Southern California, but also tohave Mayor Villaraigosa give such a stirringaddress.”

Attendees offered several explanations forthe strong Los Angeles presence. Some felt aneed to become activists against the threat ofan imminently nuclear-capable Iran. Otherspointed to the condemnation of the Israel De-fense Forces’ war last winter to halt Palestin-ian rocket fire from Gaza.

Even more lauded the recruitment effortsundertaken by rabbis representing a widerange of L.A. synagogues to bring people here.They spoke, too, of the role of synagogues’ Is-rael committees and of individual congregantsin encouraging friends and relatives to attend.Some mentioned a desire to gauge the possibleeffect on the America-Israel relationship ofthe recent ascensions to power of PresidentBarack Obama and of Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu.

All said that they’d come to learn, in-depth,about the array of Israel-related geo-politicalissues both in conference sessions and in infor-mal discussions with fellow delegates.

Several participants said that coming toWashington helped equip them with the infor-mation and strategy needed to discuss the is-sues effectively back home. Schatz said helearned the importance of sticking with a uni-form, pro-Israel message to jar supporters heknows who are apathetic and to respond to de-tractors.

For example, he said, “there should be nodiscussion” about the legitimacy of Iran’s gain-ing a nuclear capability. For another: usingwhat he called the “retail engagement”method of calmly debating topics one-on-onerather than responding publicly to provocativeprotestors. Schatz said he learned that methodhere and at two previous AIPAC seminars he’s

attended in Washington over the past year.No one mentioned the recession as a factor

in spurring their own participation or in keep-ing potential delegates away.

“L.A. is such a large Jewish communitythat we should be bringing such a large delega-tion,” Schatz said. “We have schools and lead-ers who are telling us to go, and we have thelove for Israel. There’s a great number of in-volved people. The [Israeli] consul general isvery involved.”

Large? How about the approximately 200members of Sinai Temple, more than 100 eachfrom Valley Beth Shalom and Stephen S. WiseTemple, and 40 each from Temple Beth Amand Shomrei Torah Synagogue in West Hills,which Yahudian attends?

The Jewish outreach group Aish L.A.brought 40 college students and young profes-sionals here, the third straight year it hasarranged a group.

Rabbi David Sorani, director of the gradu-ate student division, said that Aish drawsyoung people to Judaism by appealing to theirinterests and activities.

“When they get back from AIPAC, we tryto get them involved in the Jewish communi-ty and Israel,” Sorani explained before an AishL.A. side meeting here Monday.

“It’s been very successful because somestudents have gone to Israel rallies, gotten in-volved in other organizations and felt moreproud to be associated with Israel. Studentswill feel that they can stand up to the Palestini-ans and wear an Israeli T-shirt.... When youhave 7,000 people here, it makes you feel sup-ported by the community at large.”

12 The Jewish Journal jewishjournal.com May 8–14, 2009

L.A. Brings Its Clout to AIPACby HILLEL KUTTLER

Hillel Kuttler is a freelance writer in Baltimore.He can be reached athk@hillelthescribecommunications.com.

L.A. delegation with Sen. David Vitter (R-La.). Photo by Michael Kovac

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May 8–14, 2009 jewishjournal.com The Jewish Journal 29

Yoni Dror, an 11th-grader at Mesivta BirkatYitzchak, mentioned his rabbi’s custom, fol-lowing Shacharit services, of informing stu-dents of overnight news from Israel, even up-dating the pre-election poll numbers.

Yoni believes he is the first from his schoolto attend the AIPAC conference. His fatherBrian, an accountant in the Fairfax District, al-so an AIPAC first-timer, said that he came, too,because an AIPAC speaker at Birkat Yitzchakhad persuaded Yoni to travel to Washington.

No single issue on the pro-Israel agendamotivates Brian now: not the Iranian threat,terrorism or Hamas’ role in Palestinian poli-tics. “I don’t think these issues are unique toIsrael,” he said. “Every one of the issues facingIsrael’s security is an issue facing, or that willface, the United States. I challenge anyonewho feels that Iran or terrorism is a uniquelyIsrael problem to learn the facts and learn theissues.”

Asked what he came to learn this week,Brian said, “It’s the political change in bothcountries — trying to get a handle on what wecan do to help.” He added, “I feel that our time,effort and money are my contribution to en-suring Israel’s safety. Thank God the state ex-ists [and] has a good economy; the only thingleft is to ensure its security.”

Bringing young Angelenos to the AIPACconference is an important way for Adam Mil-stein to support both Israel and Judaism. TheEncino commercial real estate developer andhis wife, Hila, natives of Haifa, assumed thecost of bringing 150 people here. That includesthe Aish L.A. contingent along with groupsfrom StandWithUs, Hillel, AIPAC’s regionalgroup and the Jewish Awareness Movement.

The investment “is a no-brainer,” he said.

“I am a charitable person. My focus is thestudents. Now is the time to get them educat-ed and involved. The kids are so energetic.They want to be active; they want to create.... Iwant them to bring their parents. [Parents] lis-ten to the kids. Through the kids, we can reachmore people,” Milstein said.

Milstein also has partnered with AIPAC toreach out to non-Jewish college student lead-ers. Each year since 2006, the couple has sent50 such students on AIPAC’s Allied CampusMission to Israel. “We’re getting excellent re-sults from our investment,” he said. “As a busi-nessman, every investment we make, we wantto see the highest return. Every dollar wespend, we get huge results.”

The Milsteins’ involvement with AIPACbegan modestly. They came to the conferencefive years ago because they wanted to spur col-lege activism on Israel by their two elderdaughters, Wendy and Leerone. Each girlbrought a friend. At the 2004 conference’sbanquet, Leerone sat next to another Los An-geles participant. The two hit it off. They weremarried in 2006.

Yahudian, the jeweler, also has his teenagedaughter, Hannah, in mind for AIPAC. He wasso impressed by his initial experience herethat he registered at a kiosk for next year’sconference. He plans to bring his wife anddaughter, too, and will raise the idea upon hisreturn to Los Angeles.

Yahudian also is working on some Christ-ian clients in Mississippi whom he knowsfrom trade shows in New Orleans. Already, hesaid, a preacher there said that he hopes tobring 40 congregants on their first trip to Is-rael.

“I have to go home and promote [the con-ference] to family and friends, to see howmany I can bring here,” he said. “As I tell myfriends: If you love Israel, this [event] is theperfect place to be.” l

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