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Hundreds Attend Elie Tahari Runway Show in Miami Honoring Female IDF Soldiers, Hosted at Catholic University
Elie Tahari, right, with wounded IDF solider Dvorah Lea Bart. Photo: Provided
Eight hundred people attended a fashion show on Thursday night in Miami by renowned Israeli fashion designer Elie Tahari that honored female soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and supported Tahari’s new initiative to provide clothing for wounded IDF veterans.
The runway show highlighted 40-50 garments from Tahari’s Fall 2026 collection, assembled into a new collection for the event titled “Threads of Valor.” Its name draws inspiration from a chapter in the Book of Proverbs called Eshet Chayil (“Women of Valor”), which praises a woman as the matriarch of her family and household, and is traditionally sung by a husband on Friday night before the start of the Shabbat meal. “Eshet Chayil” includes lines that talk about a woman making and selling garments.
“Tonight has been the best night of my life,” Tahari said on stage at the runway show. “I’m very proud to be a part of this. Anything I can do for the soldiers — they are my heroes; they are always going to be my heroes. And it makes me feel happy.”
The Israeli-born fashion designer immigrated to New York in 1971 with less than $100 and built a billion-dollar fashion empire that has been successful for over 50 years. Since the Hamas-led terrorist attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, he has been passionate about supporting IDF veterans, with 100 percent of his e-commerce going directly to help female IDF soldiers.
Thursday’s runway show took place at St. Thomas University (STU), a Catholic school. It was co-organized by Ashlee Rzyczycki, director of STU’s Fashion Merchandising and Design program, as well as Tobi Rubinstein, who serves on the school’s fashion advisory committee and had a career in fashion for the last 45 years. The show was also organized in collaboration with Yedidim – an organization that assists IDF veterans — and Soireee Events.
The runway show was divided into different segments and each revolved around a different theme – including resilience, command, power, freedom, confidence, and sacrifice – that related to the journey and stories of the IDF soldiers honored at the event. Students in STU’s fashion design program collaborated in picking garments by Tahari that would be featured in the runway show, in line with the chosen themes, but students also helped create the lineup and worked behind the scenes at Thursday night’s event.
“It’s an interfaith collaboration. We are a Catholic school, but we can have conversations about faith. It’s been such an amazing learning opportunity for my students,” Rzyczycki told The Algemeiner. “The fashion show is taking audience members on this journey that these women have gone through, when they are in the army, and what they experience from that. It’s kind of a visual, artistic interpretation of that sacrifice … of what they do and incorporating how fashion can be part of that story and narrative.”
“It’s like bringing New York Fashon Week together with a charity event, blending it together and putting it in a major fashion school,” added Rubinstein, who is also a best-selling author and founder of the House of Faith and Fashion movement. “It’s really quite something, and the irony of it being in a Catholic fashion school that is so pro-Israel just makes it all the most delicious.”
Among the models who walked the runway on Thursday night were IDF soldiers, Jewish STU students, influencers, and pro-Israel activists, including former UC Santa Barbara Student Body President Tessa Veksler, who was featured in the “Blind Spot” documentary; Lawfare Project founder Brooke Goldstein; and artist, designer, and entrepreneur Elizabeth Sutton.
“It was an immense privilege to walk the runway for such a monumental fashion moment in support of Israel — alongside legendary women who have fought for Israel not only on the frontlines of the war itself, but also on the frontlines of the global war against antisemitism. It was humbling,” Sutton told The Algemeiner. “To witness a fashion icon like Elie Tahari commit such bold philanthropy — pledging all e-commerce sales in perpetuity to wounded soldiers — was profoundly inspiring, and reaffirmed my own goals as a Jewish businesswoman, leader, and designer.”
Proceeds from Thursday night’s event when directly to supporting female IDF veterans through Tahari’s new initiative Project Wardrobe, which provides wounded female IDF veterans with clothing so they can feel empowered while acclimating back into society after they finish their army service. As part of the initiative, launched in collaboration with Yedidim and Soiree Events, Tahari gives a clothing allowance to soldiers each month and he covers the cost of shipping, delivery, taxes, and other fees for the garments.
“It’s about giving the wounded soldier a sense of self-esteem and self-worth through clothing,” Rubinstein said of Project Wardrobe. “Clothing is so much more than just what I wear. It can heal you. It can rehabilitate you and give you the strength to move forward.”
“To me Elie’s clothing is like a suit of armor,” added Rzyczycki. “It demonstrates power and showing that you can be confident and powerful in what you wear. And all of the clothing that Elie has, his designs, has always been focused on that. He is a really powerful beacon to demonstrate how clothing can provide power to women.”
Rzyczycki also talked to The Algemeiner about the decision to have STU host the fashion show and collaborate in efforts to support Israeli soldiers.
“It’s all about educating my students on the power that fashion can have … For me, as an educator I think it’s important for me to tell my students about doing things that are bigger than ourselves,” she explained. “I think it’s really important for my students to be able to understand some of the philanthropic efforts that go into fashion. And this event really embodies that – being able to give back and also do things that have a bigger purpose revolving around fashion.”
“Fashion can be a unifier for all religions, all different ways of life, to be able to provide education and camaraderie,” she added. “I think we’re teaching our students valuable lessons on the power that fashion can have in that language and delivering that to people.”
A day before the runway show, Tahari and Rubenstein hosted a fashion masterclass for STU students in the fashion merchandising and design program, where the designer discussed the fashion business but also the combination of faith and fashion.
See below photos from Tahari’s “Threads of Valor” fashion show.
Photo: Threads of Valor
Photo: Threads of Valor
Photo: Threads of Valor
Photo: Threads of Valor
Photo: Threads of Valor
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Ukraine, Russia Swap 193 Prisoners of War Each in US, UAE-Facilitated Exchange
Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) react after a swap, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at an unknown location in Ukraine, April 24, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Anatolii Stepanov
Ukraine and Russia conducted a prisoner of war swap on Friday, sending back 193 captured personnel each in an exchange both sides said was facilitated by the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
“It is important that there are exchanges and that our people are returning home,” said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in a post on Telegram.
His chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov, and Russia‘s defence ministry said the US and the UAE had assisted with the exchange.
Russia and Ukraine have conducted many prisoner swaps over four years of war, exchanging thousands of captives in total.
Zelenskiy said some of the returned captives, who included soldiers, border guards, and police, had injuries, while others had faced criminal charges in Russia.
In Ukraine, returning captives streamed off buses, many draped in their country’s flag and overwhelmed with emotion.
“It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m home, I was in captivity for three years … our Ukrainian sky, our trees — this is happiness,” said Serhiy, a soldier, who gave only his first name.
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Main Suspect in Syria’s Tadamon Massacre Arrested, Ministry Says
Residents gather in a street after Friday prayers to celebrate the arrest of Amjad Yousef, a key suspect in the 2013 Tadamon massacre, in Tadamon, Syria, April 24, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi
Syria’s Interior Ministry said on Friday it had arrested the main suspect in the 2013 Tadamon massacre, one of the worst acts of violence attributed to the former government of Bashar al-Assad, in which 288 civilians were killed.
The ministry released footage of Amjad Yousef’s arrest in the Al-Ghab Plain area of Hama province in western Syria, near his hometown. Yousef had been hiding there since the overthrow of Assad at the end of 2024, a security source told Reuters.
US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack welcomed the arrest in a post on X, calling it an important step towards accountability for atrocities committed during Syria’s war.
DOCUMENTING THE MASSACRE
Yousef, 40, a former member of military intelligence under Assad, was thrust into the spotlight in April 2022 when the UK’s Guardian newspaper published videos provided by two academics that they said showed him forcing blindfolded civilians to run towards a pit in the Tadamon neighborhood of southern Damascus before shooting them.
Annsar Shahoud, a researcher at the University of Amsterdam Holocaust and Genocide Center and one of the academics, spent four years documenting the massacre.
Posing as an online fangirl, Shahoud gained Yousef’s trust and ultimately obtained his confessions both on video and audio recording.
Reuters was unable to reach Yousef for comment as he has been taken into custody.
The massacre is one of the most egregious documented incidents of violence attributed to the Assad government during the 14-year bloody war that began in 2011.
After Assad’s fall at the end of 2024, civilians, media outlets and international organizations went to the site of the massacre to inspect it and interview witnesses. Locals refer to the site as “Amjad Yousef’s Pit.” It has been marked on Google Maps as “The Site of the Tadamon Massacre.”
Ahmed Adra, a Tadamon resident and a member of the neighborhood committee, said victims’ families had been celebrating in the streets since morning.
“We will take white roses and plant them at the site of the massacre and tell the victims that their memory is alive and that justice is being served,” he told Reuters.
Shahoud said she now felt safe with Yousef in custody, but added the path to justice in Syria was unclear and did not include all perpetrators.
“I feel safe now, despite the distance, because I always felt for years that this person was after me,” she told Reuters.
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Merz Floats Sanctions Relief for Iran Peace Deal, Other EU Leaders Cautious
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks during a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 4, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested on Friday that the European Union could ease sanctions on Tehran as part of a comprehensive deal that would end the Iran war, but other EU leaders struck a more cautious note.
The 27-nation EU has imposed sanctions on Iran for years, including travel bans and asset freezes for senior officials and entities, in response to human rights violations, nuclear activities, and military support for Russia.
US officials have suggested a comprehensive deal covering Iran‘s nuclear and missile programs and the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz could bring a lasting end to the US-Israeli war with Tehran, beyond the current ceasefire.
After an EU summit in Cyprus, Merz said the bloc could gradually ease sanctions on Iran in the event that a comprehensive agreement was reached.
European leaders have been largely sidelined in the current Middle East conflict but some European officials see the bloc’s sanctions as a possible way for the EU to be involved in a diplomatic solution.
“The easing of sanctions can be part of a process,” Merz told reporters after the Nicosia summit.
“No one has objected to that,” he said of the summit deliberations. “It is, so to speak, part of the contribution we can make to advance this process and, hopefully, lead to a permanent ceasefire.”
But European Council President Antonio Costa, the chair of the summit, told a press conference after the end of the meeting: “It is too early to talk about relieving any kind of sanctions.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said sanctions relief could only come after clear evidence of fundamental changes of course from Iran.
“We believe that sanctions relief should be conditional on verification of de-escalation, particularly on progress on the international effort to contain its nuclear threat, and on a change to the repression of its own people,” she told the same press conference.