AIPAC is one of the most influential lobbies in Washington, second only to the American Association of Retired People, AIPAC Northeast Field Organizer Rachel Murov said. The 55,000-member organization is bipartisan and does not directly fund political campaigns.

Harvard Students for Israel has a similar orientation, Co-President Benjamin A. Flusberg '01 said. "We don't have a political stance, even though people think we do. AIPAC itself doesn't have a political stance." It just follows the Israeli government's position, he said.

Rachel L. Brown '01 is one of the three students primarily responsible for organizing the conference. She is also one of only four students in the nation who are members of AIPAC's executive committee.

Brown said that until she visited Israel last winter break, she hadn't felt much connection to it. But in Israel, she said she was moved by a sense of history. "I was able to touch stones that had been touched by millions of Jews over thousands of years," she said.

Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) had been scheduled to speak at the event, but cancelled the appointment this weekend.