What do comedian Al Franken, Republican Senator Bill Frist, and "Sex and the City" scribe Cindy Chupack have in common?

All three were featured speakers at the 2004 United Jewish Communities National Young Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Nearly 2,000 young Jewish activists from across the country attended the three-day conference last March. Speakers at the event included a wide cross-section of diverse and bipartisan experts of American, Israeli and Jewish political, media and community figures. Participants took part in a variety of activities including workshops and seminars examining global, national and community issues of interest to the Jewish community.

"The Washington Conference was important to me because I care about our Jewish origins, because we, as a group, are concerned about our Jewish present, and because we want to sustain and improve the fate of Jews in the world in the future," said Julie Bitton, one of 50 delegates from Atlanta who took part in the conference.

Attendees heard from notables such as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, terrorism expert Steve Emerson, radio host Dennis Prager and Emory University professor Ken Stein. Billed as the "ultimate Jewish communal experience," participants came away with a greater sense of their place in the global Jewish community and the myriad of ways in which they can create positive social and political change. Inspiring delegates to take action and become political activists in their local community, participants visited Capitol Hill to discuss with lawmakers issues of concern to the Jewish community.

The ongoing threat of both domestic and foreign terror, as well as lingering anti-Semitism was a popular topic of discussion.

 "As we have seen the efforts over the years as Israel has tried to prevent these bombers and murderers from coming across, think of how we in America would feel if there were a constant stream of those who wish us ill, who wanted to kill innocent men, women and children," Sen. Clinton noted. "I think we would strongly argue that our government had to take all steps necessary to end the violence and the terror including going after the leaders."

Main issues addressed during the conference were support for federal grants and loan guarantees to protect Jewish and other high-risk non-profit institutions from terrorist attacks; support for legislation extending the federal contribution to the Medicaid program to prevent states from imposing budget cuts on nursing homes, hospitals and social service agencies; and support for congressional resolutions urging the Bush administration and the international community to take measures to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"Past conferences were inspirational, but this year's was more interactive than ever before," said Jay Tenenbaum. "It really is our turn to do tikkun olam and help repair the world for future generations."