Thirty US First Responders from Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland were honored for their service. The list of recipients included Emergency Managers, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Laura Lanham, Montgomery County Assistant Chief of Police, Virginia Governor's Office  Stacie C. Neal, Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security, and John M. Scholz Maryland State Incident Management Team Coordinator.  

The program opened with singing the Israeli and US national anthems, followed by the bracha for safety of security personnel. 

Giving greetings for the Jerusalem Municipality was City Council member Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. Deputy Minister MK Michael Oren, born in US and made aliyah and became Israeli Ambassador to US, spoke of the mutual interests and long time collaborations of the governments in security issues. He encouraged visitors to take a look at the Liberty Bell located a few minutes away. 

Israeli MK Gila Gamliel also addressed the gathering which included representatives of Israeli police, medical and fire First Responders. 

Featured speaker and honored guest was US Ambassador David Friedman, who attended with his wife Tammy. Friedman began by speaking of chesed, the chesed of Avraham, as the first responder in Jewish tradition. Then he told of one of Israel's early responders who in 1950, came from the US  to help save the Jews of Yemen, had gone back to US, only to return recently at the age of 91, to be honored for his daring flights 

The Israel First Responders were seated with the Americans, most on their first trip to Israel. The guest group had arrived and toured in Tel Aviv, with a highlight being the behind the scenes operations at Ben Gurion Airport. 

BJL spoke with Dr. Joyce Morel, one of the Israelis attending the dinner. Trained as a doctor in Canada, Morel, who made aliyah from Toronto, is also a wife, mother and grandmother, practices family and emergency medicine. In "her spare time" she acts as an emergency response physician. Being based in Har Nof, Morel was one of the First Responders at the horrific terror attack in Har Nof.

Founder and President Yisroel Stefansky's stated mission is to ensure the safety and security of American Citizens via collaboration with Israeli forces. ASTI’s Counter Terrorism and Cyber Security Israel Immersion Training Course provides training and education for U.S. First Responders. Israeli experts are committed to sharing knowledge and experience with U.S. leaders to better protect the United States. 

As a result of their exposure and education to the Israeli vast experience in dealing with terrorism on a consistent basis, U.S. First Responders become better equipped to understand how the United States can improve their detection, prevention, response and recovery from terrorism.

Since 2003, ASTI has trained over 7,000 County and State First Responders. The positive interaction of Israelis and Americans at the King David Hotel event should lead to many more valuable interactions in the future.