At a glitzy gala, techno music and sushi bars draw in young supporters of Israel
Young revelers at a 1,000 Strong gala showed up in ball gowns and tuxedos to raise money for Israel
The 1,000 Strong event in New York City paid tribute to the Bibas family via a special violin performance. Photo by Samuel Eli Shepherd
By Olivia Haynie, Samuel Eli ShepherdFebruary 21, 2025
Guests trickled into a sleek, spacious venue in midtown Manhattan as music by Israeli pop star Omer Adam blared overhead. In tuxedos and gowns, they filled up their plates at a sushi bar, a table full of falafel and pita, a candy buffet and a spread of cookies. For drinks, they could choose from four bars, if they were willing to brave the long lines – although none were quite as long as the line for the photo booth.
This was not a scene from an upper-class New Yorker’s bar mitzvah: rather, it was the latest event held by 1,000 Strong, a New York-based Israel solidarity group aiming to mobilize American Jewish young people with a strong dose of pizzazz.
1,000 Strong was founded in late 2023 to give American Jews a way to support Israel after Oct. 7. Mordechai Weiss, a 28-year-old lawyer and one of the group’s co-founders, said he was in Israel on that day.
“I woke up to the sound of the sirens and the explosions in the windows from the Iron Dome,” said Weiss, standing by the auction table, clad in a white tuxedo and a large black bowtie. “I was on a flight home and I said, ‘Well, I’m leaving but I shouldn’t forget.’”
He called up two close friends, Mickael Benichou and Jillian Chera, a pair of well-connected Jewish professionals in their 20s, to brainstorm a way to be useful. They came up with the idea to host a glamorous event where all the money raised would go to Israel to help victims of terror and war.
Within the span of about a week, Chera said, the team had organized 50 sponsors and vendors to help put on the inaugural 1,000 Strong gala at the event space Lavan Midtown on Oct. 19, 2023. They sold more than 1,000 tickets.
This past Thursday, the third 1,000 Strong was held at Lavan Midtown, with more than 1,200 people in attendance. The vast majority of attendees were in their 20s and early 30s — 1,000 Strong makes a conscious effort to reach Gen Z and younger millennials in both their advertising and organizational makeup.
“Young people a lot of times are used as props in organizations and just as a face,” Weiss said. But, he argued 1,000 Strong was different. “Everyone is responsible for something at the event, whether it’s fundraising, whether it’s lighting, whether it’s hiring the artists,” Weiss said. “Everyone has a role.”
1,000 Strong has leveraged the reach of Jewish social media influencers such as pro-Israel activist Zach Sage Fox to bring in more attendees. Tickets for this year’s event were sold in price tiers starting at $95 named after different IDF brigades, with the highest tier, Golani, going for $250.
There was also a silent auction, featuring items such as diamond stud earrings and a painting of a lion with the Hebrew word “chazak” – meaning “strong” – written around its face multiple times. Vendors sold jewelry with pendants shaped like a map of Israel that included the occupied territories.
Graphics projected onto the walls at Lavan read “Together, 1,000 Strong” in red, white and blue text alongside images of the American flag and a red and blue IDF flag. At one point, combined American and Israeli flags were thrown into the crowd.
“I can tell you the other team does not have American flags at their events,” Weiss said.
Dancing amidst the darkness
The morning of the event, Hamas announced the return of Ariel and Kfir Bibas’ bodies, a development that the organizers and attendees said made this event even more crucial.
“After October 7th, there were a lot of very emotional events unifying the community, but very heart-wrenching,” Chera said. “Me and my husband would go to these events and we’d obviously need to feel these emotions, but we’d leave so depressed.”
“What we’ve realized, what works is that you never hide the darkness,” Chera continued. “You show it very clearly, but you finish the event on a good note to make people proud to be Jewish.”
Rimma Chertog, a 26-year-old from New Jersey, attended in a yellow gown adorned with images of the Bibas family and a sash that read, “Bring Them Home Now.” To Chertog, 1,000 Strong represented the Jewish people’s resilience.
“I was thinking to myself this morning that I’m not in the mood to celebrate, but I have to get dressed, and I have to go on, and I have to live,” she said. “Our people have been through so much — genocide, Holocaust, and look where we are now. So we have to keep going for the future generations.”
A somber ceremony — interrupted by cheers and politics
As Chertog spoke, her voice was drowned out by a bass-heavy remix of “Gimme, Gimme, Gimme” by ABBA. A similar juxtaposition between celebration and grief extended throughout the venue.
Golden balloons on the door frames looked celebratory – but the balloons were attached to posters of hostages still in captivity. Israeli pop music encouraged guests to dance, while graphics on the walls occasionally turned orange with the text “BIBAS” and emojis of broken hearts. And while many guests wore gray blazers or sequined blue ball-gowns, they also accessorized these garments with dog tags, Magen David necklaces and yellow ribbon pins.
At the main ceremony, Jewish social media influencer Lizzy Savetsky walked on stage to “YMCA” and told the crowd how grateful she was “that we have an administration in this country who supports the Jewish people and the state of Israel.”
“God bless President Donald Trump,” Savetsky said, before singing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Chera sang “Hatikvah” before a pair of Israeli violinists devoted a performance to slain Israeli soldiers. Andrey Kozlov, a Russian-Israeli citizen who was held hostage in Gaza for eight months after being kidnapped by Hamas from the Nova Music Festival, spoke about his dedication to fight antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
Multiple times, Weiss and Benichou had to stop in the middle of their introductions to ask the crowd to quiet down.
“This one part of the ceremony, that’s the only part I really want it to be quiet for,” Weiss pleaded before the violin performances. “So on three, we’re going to shush because this is about the fallen soldiers and the Bibas family.”
New York City mayor Eric Adams also made a speech, telling the crowd that he has attended all three 1,000 Strong galas. The crowd hollered as he promised that the city “would never become a place where antisemitism will live.”
At one point, someone in the crowd began to heckle Adams and shouted “genocide.” The crowd responded by chanting “USA! USA!”
The mayor shrugged off the heckler, who he said was just his “ex-girlfriend from childhood” there to bother him.
Adams, who came under scrutiny recently for comparing calls for his resignation to Mein Kampf, went on to liken the separation anxiety he felt dropping his son off at college to the fears of American Jews after Oct. 7. “I am not just your mayor,” he told the crowd of young Israel supporters. “I’m your brother, and I get it.”
After the speeches, guests continued to dance and nosh on snacks; the party’s organizer said they had raised $275,000. As guests lined up for the coat-check, patrons butted each other in line before returning out into the cold.
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