umkahlil

Vidal Sasson, the multi-millionaire owner of hair salons and founder of "Friends of the Israel Defense Forces."

Thanks to Jeff for the following:

The $4 million raised here to benefit the army of a foreign nation is tax deductible. The message from the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces website is: "The job of Israeli Soldiers is to look after Israel... Ours is to look after them. To make a donation, please fill out the enclosed secured form."

http://www.israelsoldiers.org/make_donation.htm

Gala for IDF

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=15285

More than 850 people, including many of the most prominent leaders of the Jewish community, gathered at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills to honor the brave men and women who serve in the Israel Defense Forces. The Friends of the Israel Defense Forces Western Region held the event to raise funds for an auditorium, library and synagogue at the soon to be built new REIM Base in the Negev.

The gala dinner was co-chaired by Cheryl and Haim Saban and included a live satellite hook-up with soldiers stationed near Gaza. The evening’s special guest speaker was Avi Dicter, who recently retired as head of Shin Bet. By the end of the evening, the gala dinner had raised nearly $4 million with many additional pledges and commitments under discussion.

Even in Beverly Hills, it’s not every day that someone gets up to pledge $1 million to a good cause, to say nothing of two successive million-dollar donors.

Dichter, a rising star in Kadima, warned that the “terror states” of Iran, Syria and Lebanon had not given up on their hopes to destroy the Jewish state. — Tom Tugend, Contributing Editor (Jewish Journal of Los Angeles)