Rabbi Zvi Drizin arrived in Washington, D.C., Friday to participate in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s 2011 Policy Conference, one of thousands who heard from policymakers and international leaders on strengthening ties between the United States and Israel.

A group of about 40 young adults from North Texas brought Drizin, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary who directs The Intown Chabad in Dallas, to the Washington Convention Center. Four Jewish students from Dartmouth College did the same thing, travelling to Washington with campus Chabad House director Rabbi Moshe Gray.

Gabi Tudin, a junior who founded Dartmouth Students for Israel and serves as president of the Chabad House’s student board, said that the conference, her second, comes as part of a recent cultural and religious awakening.

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“My original passion came from the first time I went there,” she explained. “We learned about Israel in the context of Judaism and that connection is what drives me.”

For Gray, the choice to attend similarly boiled down to the importance of strengthening people’s connections to Judaism, and thereby, to the Land of Israel.

“It’s just a beautiful thing to see,” Gray said of the diversity at the Washington conference. “You can strike up a conversation with anybody, and the stereotypes sort of melt away.”

Three times each day, people broke off into prayer groups, he observed. He noted the importance of infusing Judaism into all of a Jew’s pursuits.

At the conference, “you pray, you put on tefillin, you eat kosher, you advocate. All of these help defend your brethren in Israel,” said the rabbi.

The meeting’s climactic end came Tuesday as attendees fanned out across Capitol Hill to engage their local legislators and emphasize the importance of American and Israeli cooperation.

Facts on the Ground

All told, close to 11,000 people, including 67 U.S. senators, 286 U.S. representatives, and 1,500 university students, attended the policy conference, said AIPAC spokesman Ari Goldberg.

Attendees participated in workshops, and during plenary sessions, listened to remarks from such high-profile figures as President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a second-generation American who has experienced a near-meteoric rise to the very top of the political echelons, and Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.

Tanya Johnson, 26, of Dallas, said that she came to her fourth conference out of a desire to be educated on the facts on the ground.

“The mood has been great,” she said. “It’s been a really good conference.

“I know I’m already pumped and ready to go back to Dallas and do my part,” she added. “I want to have the facts so I can tell the facts to them, from the source, not just from the TV. We’re getting it from the source.”

Rabbi Gedalia Potash, director of Chabad of Noe Valley in S. Francisco, said he enjoyed the opportunity to meet fellow Jews from around the country.

Sitting at the Washington Memorial late Monday, he said he reflected on the United States, “on what an amazing country we live in and how fortunate we are to live in a country of kindness and freedom.”

He said he was inspired by the sense of Jewish identity he saw at the conference, and hoped to return to Noe Valley and share that with others.

“I hope I’ll be able to go back to my community and create a sense of awareness,” he said.

Tudin sounded a similar note.

“It’s not easy” to what she does on campus, she explained. “But our group is very passionate.”