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November 28, 2003/Kislev 3 5764, Vol. 56, No. 10
AIPAC leader: Get politically engaged
BARRY COHEN
Editor
The combination of the Palestinian intifada and the 9/11 attacks led the new Arizona area director of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee from lobbying for the medical industry to lobbying for Israel.
Evan Bernstein had been working for Ad-vanced Medical Tech-nology Association, the official lobby for the medical industry, based in Washington, D.C.
But the 9/11 attacks, followed by ongoing intifada violence, brought increased attention to the safety of Israel and the dangers Israelis face every day, he says.
Bernstein decided to use his lobbying experience to help Israel.
"I have always been mo-tivated, and I have always had a desire to help Israel and have a real impact on policy making, and I felt AIPAC was the best way for me to do that," says Bernstein.
He began his stint in Arizona last April. "It was a very nice transition for me," says Bern-stein, who has family in the area.
Bernstein, who graduated from Western Connecticut State University, has ad-ditional experience in the political world through working at the Sen. George Mitchell Scholarship Institute, based in Portland, Maine.
"I helped them develop some new approaches with community develop-ment and involve-ment," he notes, in addition to fund-raising.
Bernstein's most intense involvement with AIPAC has been the AIPAC National Summit, based in Phoenix, Oct. 26-27.
"I thought the summit was a tremendous success. Having over 600 people from all over the country was truly a fantastic achievement," he says. "That we had close to 100 people from Arizona alone attend the summit was just wonderful."
Bernstein listed straight-forward goals in the coming months - to educate and empower as many people as possible to keep the U.S.-Israel relationship strong.
To support Israel during these difficult times, people need to get "politically engaged and take political action," he says.
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