Anti-Rocket Science
Developer of Iron Dome describes how the lifesaving system became a miraculous reality
Ari Sacher at the Chabad presentation
Since 1991, by day, rocket scientist Ari Sacher’s job has been to build missiles, most recently the defensive missiles Israel uses to respond to rocket attacks from around the region. By night, since 2017 he has worked with the Birmingham-based U.S. Israel Education Association.
“They are both meaningful in different ways — they both are for the protection of the Jewish people,” he told a gathering at the Bais Ariel Chabad Center in Birmingham on July 11.
In introducing the evening, Rabbi Yossi Friedman from Chabad of Alabama said USIEA is “an amazing organization that works so hard to protect the state of Israel.”
John Mejia, a USIEA board member, said “What we do is very simple. We educate Congress.” The organization has built deep relations with high-level leaders through tours “that go from A to Z. They see everything,” including “the places they aren’t supposed to go to.” Most tours do not go into the territories because of political sensitivities, but USIEA believes that without seeing those areas, representatives are missing vital information needed for understanding the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
The organization has also been involved with building economic ties between Israelis in the territories and Palestinian business leaders, and with a recent effort to “friendshore” medical manufacturing away from China to the Abraham Accords countries, to further cooperation throughout the region. In September, USIEA issued a paper on the necessity of reforming the education system in Gaza, so schoolchildren will learn something other than the demonization of Israel that has been pervasive in the curriculum over the past couple decades.
In 2011, Sacher was a senior engineer in the Iron Dome team at Rafael. Every couple of years, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee would bring a delegation to see the latest defense systems. The AIPAC trips specialize in newly-elected representatives, while USIEA focuses on Congressional
