By: Daniel Cohen

For four days in August, members of the world’s largest Jewish fraternity, AEPi, joined together in Orlando, Fla. for the 98^th annual Convention, which focused on leadership building. Hasbara Fellowships Midwest Regional Coordinator (and AEPi brother) Daniel Cohen was there and shares his experience.

From August 10-14, over 400 AEPi brothers from across the country gathered at the Hilton Walt Disney for the 98^th annual AEPi Convention. Four countries (England, Israel, the US, and Canada) were represented, featuring delegations from over 100 chapters and colonies. The focus was on leadership development, as brothers participated in seminars led by AEPi staff, alumni, and partner organizations such as AIPAC and Hasbara Fellowships.

It is rare to see such a colossal gathering of young Jewish leadership all under one roof. But only two years away from AEPi’s 100^th anniversary in New York, this Convention in Disney World was a testament to the fact that dreams do come true.

The convention featured plenty of time for brothers from across the country to get to know each other, time that brothers like Ty Sampson, Master of AEPi at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, took full advantage of.

“I liked Convention as a whole because of the exchange of ideas, and that I was able to meet kids outside of the Midwest and was able to talk about anything and how other brothers handle business at their chapters, I thought that was pretty cool,” Sampson said.

The AEPi Convention also put brothers in touch with partner Jewish organizations and philanthropies, many of whom AEPi had organized philanthropy events for and donated to. This was especially vital for those brothers who were also Hasbara Fellows – participants on Hasbara Fellowship’s two-week Israel program that had been trained in how to promote Israel advocacy on their campuses.

Andy Weiss, an AEPi brother and Hasbara Fellow at Northeastern University, appreciated the chance to network.

“It definitely connected me to more people in the region,” Weiss said. “With both AEPi and other resources such as AEPi national philanthropies, many of which deal with Israeli causes and Israeli issues. Most of our philanthropies in general are Israeli causes so I definitely think there’s a connection in knowing how we can use our philanthropies to highlight Israel’s contribution to society today.  When we are raising money for philanthropy we are also raising awareness for a cause and that cause is a belief in the state in Israel.”

AEPi’s laudable connections to much of the Jewish-American world greatly facilitates brothers' efforts to take that extra step and become more involved, often in the case of advocating for Israel on their campus through a partner organization like Hasbara Fellowships. For the Jewish people to have such a strong fraternity training our future leaders is nothing short of magical. While not all brothers will choose to take on the mantle of defending Israel’s name on their campus, you can expect that they will certainly strive to excel at whatever they do, carrying with them Israel’s flag draped over their back as a Jew and, consequently, as an ambassador of the Jewish people.

The start of a new semester is a good time to step back and take stock of the bigger picture.  Even beyond the scope of Israel advocacy, good things are happening for the Jewish people. While AEPi’s Supreme Master Sam Blustein observes, “It’s a great time to be an AEPi,” I think a more fitting saying for all of us might be, “It’s pretty cool to be a Jew.”