Staff Writer

For Cheri Borsky, a mundane trip to the post office became an opportunity to set the record straight about Israel.

While mailing a letter last year to her parents, who were in Israel at the time, the Gaithersburg resident received "a dirty look" from a postal worker.

"He said, 'They're bombing everything,' " recalled the 47-year-old.

Rather than taking offense to the worker's remark, Borsky remained calm, transforming the situation into a teachable moment.

"I got to explain to him that Israel is defending against Hamas missiles," Borsky said. "Having information [about Israel] at my fingertips makes it possible to do advocacy where I never would have expected."

To help hone her skills, Borsky joined about 240 others on Sunday afternoon for an Israel advocacy training day at the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville.

Organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington, the event focused on Iran, emphasizing the danger posed by the country's aggressive pursuit of nuclear arms.

Grassroots advocacy, stressed most speakers, can play an important role in prompting the nation's policy makers to take swift action against the increasingly belligerent Iranian regime.

"The purpose of the conference was to energize local pro-Israel activists about the threat of Iran, and to educate them in ways they can be supportive of Israel," Ron Halber, JCRC's executive director, said in an interview. "Our goal was to teach the activists to be PR professionals in support of Israel through the media, online expression and talking with their non-Jewish neighbors in a positive fashion."

Among the speakers were Dan Arbell, deputy chief of mission at the Embassy of Israel, and Martin Indyk, vice president and director for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution and a former ambassador to Israel, who addressed an off-the-record session.

Participants also were given advocacy folders, packed with literature detailing "Every Day Tasks for the Israel Advocate," as well as tips on how to write letters to the editor and to members of Congress. Panel discussions, such as "Online Advocacy: Blogging, Twitter and Social Media" and "Israel Advocacy in the Synagogue," treaded similar terrain.

During a workshop session about "Understanding Christian Perspectives on Israel," Ethan Felson, vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, dissected the critical differences in how Christians perceive the Middle East conflict.

Evangelical Christians are not "reflexively pro-Israel," but tend to be "open to our conversation" about Israel, Felson said. Predisposed to view Israel as a land promised by God, many of these groups are beginning to abandon their End of Days scenarios.

In fact, Felson noted, during a JCPA-sponsored roundtable discussion last year, some evangelical Protestant leaders copped to experiencing "Armageddon fatigue." This shift, he added, provides Jewish groups an opening to make their case for Israel.

As for Iran, Felson said that many mainline Protestants take less of a hard-line approach than Jews, typically erring on the side of "pacifism." Christian biblical teachings -- such as "turning the other cheek" in the face of abuse -- lead swaths of the mainline Christian community to believe the U.S. should set an example for Iran by giving up its own nuclear weapons.

"This is not a random crazy thought," Felson said. It's how these groups "understand their role in the world."

Craig Sager, a Rockville resident who attended the Christian perspectives session, believes that as long as Christians support the Jewish state, their reasoning is irrelevant. "I think the support of Israel is the large thing."

Sager, 49, also attended a closed-to-the-press workshop on "Congressional and Legislative Advocacy" that he said offered practical tips -- such as how to format a letter and whom to call -- on how to get Israel-centric messages out to lawmakers.

Ron Glanz, the JCRC's president, said that the 4 1/2 hour event achieved its objective. "The one thing you often here from Jews É is, 'What can I do?' " he said. "What we learned today is there's a lot we can do.