On Wednesday, June 11th, SHAI held its first Women’s Empowerment Fashion Show Luncheon with fashion icon Elie Tahari. Hosted by Vice President Jacqueline Harounian, this powerful, uplifting, and meaningful event celebrated the women of our community, and a portion of the proceeds from the event were donated to Shalom Task Force to help battered women in our area. We were honored to have County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Legislator Mazi Pilip in attendance for this event honoring Adi Akunis and designer Elie Tahari.
The program opened with a beautiful rendition of Hatikvah and Shema Yisrael sung by Ghazal Mizrahi, and Angela Chaman served as emcee. Adi Akunis spoke of her work, alongside her husband Consul General Ofir Akunis, on behalf of Israel and the New York community. Bruce Blakeman awarded citations to Elie, Adi, Jackie, and outgoing SHAI co-President Erika Goldstein Kashi, and the honorees were gifted with Am Yisrael Chai artwork by Michoel Muchnik. In conjunction with the theme of women’s empowerment, this event also served as the passing of the presidential baton, recognizing Erika’s vision and impact and welcoming incoming president Mojgan Cohanim Lancman.
The fashion show, highlighting Tahari’s pieces, featured women from the New York area as the models, each one accomplished in one of a broad range of fields, including medical professionals, an author, an attorney, entrepreneurs, real estate agents, SHAI board members, and more. As Erika highlighted in her speech, fashion and fabric are an incredible metaphor for women in Jewish life, weaving together our unique and essential threads into an extraordinary and indestructible tapestry. When we unite and support each other’s successes, we are all lifted up and empowered.
During Tiffany Kazai’s interview of Elie Tahari, he moved everyone in the room as he shared his journey from living in a tent in a refugee camp in Israel to living in an orphanage to being homeless on a park bench in New York. He spoke about the impact October 7th had on him, and his work combating antisemitism and helping the Jewish community. Elie took pictures with everyone and generously gifted each of our models their beautiful outfits.
We are grateful to our event co-chairs Edna Khalily, Claudine Amirian, and Erika Kashi for their hard work, time, and creativity in planning this event, along with Simone Camhi, Angela Chaman, Shahruz Shahery, Tiffany Kazai, Tamara Harounian, all of our models, and everyone else who helped to make this luncheon possible. We also thank raffle sponsors Suzanne Perun Travel, Yair Stern Jewelry, and Balmain for their generous donations, and our vendors: Lederman Caterers for the beautiful luncheon, Becca London Jewelry, Melissa Lux Beauty, Arie Photo Studio, Flowers by Adrian, Great Neck Games, North Fork Valet, and DJ Farshid Bakhshi.
It truly was a day of celebration, inspiration, and paying it forward.
