AIPAC: A Trip of a Life Time

Written by Miles Greenspoon (Seaboard)

Dear fourteen-year-old Miles,

It’s me here. Well, you, to be exact. Even though I know this letter will never get to the past, I feel compelled to write it. You’re about to enter high school, which means a lot more USY activities. But between your chapter’s convention preparations and your Skype calls with your Wheels friends, a lot of your time will surround Israel. Even if you don’t go to Israel during high school (trust me, you’ll try your hardest but it just won’t work out), you’ll still want to advocate for Israel, educate others about Israel, and fall in love with everything about Israel over and over again.

It’s important that you develop that feeling as soon as possible, because it’s going to serve you well when USY brings you along to three AIPAC Policy Conferences in the next four years.

Yeah, you read that right: three. You’ll be attending the AIPAC Policy Conference in your freshman, junior, and senior years of high school. And let me tell you, every experience you have is going to be amazing in its own, unique way – that’s the way AIPAC does it. And each year, you will fall in love with Israel all over again.

Each year, you will be awed by just how large the plenary room is. You’ll see thousands upon thousands of people: AIPAC delegates, board members and volunteers; news reporters; clergy members of all religions; adults and students like you who care deeply about Israel. Each year, you will feel a sense of pride when a speaker mentions the thousands of students in the room, and the rest of the room gives you a standing ovation (keep on smiling even after it happens for the fourth or fifth time during the conference). Each year, you will hear insightful speakers talk about both the trials and tribulations Israel must face as well as the innovations Israel has created. Each year, you will fall in love with Israel all over again.

But each year, your understanding of Israel will mature. Your questions directed at speakers will be more thoughtful, more insightful. You will listen to your senators with more resolve, knowing that they are amongst the biggest Israel supporters in the Senate. You will see the AIPAC Policy Conference in a new light, appreciating the different yearly theme even more and everything that it says about the relationship between the United States and Israel. Each year, you will be even more determined to commit yourself as an ally of Israel. Each year, you will fall in love with Israel all over again.

Even if you never do get to read these words, fourteen-year-old Miles, you will get to experience these feelings. Not only do you have the opportunity of a lifetime, you get to take USY up on that offer three times. I can’t wait to see what we both do with the information we learn from AIPAC, and I can’t wait to watch you fall in love with Israel all over again.

Yours truly,

Miles Greenspoon (eighteen-year-old Miles, that is)