The Israeli American Council kicked off its annual conference under the headline "Israel. Together." in South Florida, Thursday.
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The 2021 IAC National Summit was the first in-person Jewish American organization event held since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. Organizers took steps to prevent infection, including through the holding of outdoor events and COVID testing.
Some 2,800 people are set to attend the three-day event at the Diplomat Beach Resort. The opening session was set to include a conversation between Israel Hayom Editor-in-Chief and Likud MK Nir Barkat, as well as another conversation between analyst and host Yoav Limor and Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan.
Organizers hope the conference will provide an additional opportunity to establish Israel's role in the US Jewish community and help validate the role Israelis living in the US play as a "living bridge" to the Jewish state.
The IAC conference will host various panels, including on boycotts of Israel in the US, anti-Israel curriculum in the US education system, the unity of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, as well as the Iranian nuclear threat.
Among those set to address the conference are Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Erdan, Israel's Consul General in New York Assaf Zamir, and other key US figures such as Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
Shoham Nicolet, co-founder and CEO of the IAC, told Israel Hayom ahead of the conference that Israelis living in the US are no longer observing events from the sidelines. He said Israelis played an integral role in Jewish public life in North America. Nicolet offered the leadership role the IAC took on during Israel's Operation Guardian of the Walls in the Gaza Strip in May as one example.
"It's no secret, certainly in the last two years [of the pandemic], that there is a continued retreat in the Jewish American communities from the connection to Israel, and the IAC in some places fills in this gap," Nicolet said.
"On one hand, our conference encourages both discussions and debates as to what needs to be done today and what the future should look like, but clearly this is a shared future. The common denominator is that everyone loves Israel," he said.
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