When New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin walks the runway at the Metropolitan Opera House next week, she will be dressed by Israeli American designer Elie Tahari. The pairing is driven by their shared history of entrepreneurship and building success from the ground up, but amid heightened antisemitism, the moment also spotlights two proud Jewish and Zionist New Yorkers.

Now in its third year, Style Across the Aisle — set to coincide with New York Fashion Week — pairs 30 bipartisan elected officials with New York City designers based on shared geography, heritage or life experience. 

This year’s lineup arrives against a backdrop of rising antisemitic attacks in New York City, which some Jewish leaders say has been fueled by Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rhetoric targeting Israel. It includes several openly Jewish, pro-Israel lawmakers — among them Menin and City Comptroller Mark Levine — walking in pieces by Jewish designers Tahari and Yosel Tiefenbrun, a Chabad rabbi-turned-tailor whose Tribeca studio sits blocks from Levine’s office.

Menin, the city’s first Jewish council speaker, will be dressed by Jerusalem-born Tahari — the designer credited with creating the tube top — due to a shared history of resilience, according to the event organizers. Both began their journeys as self-made entrepreneurs: Menin rebuilt her career after a downtown restaurant she owned was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks, while Tahari arrived in New York penniless — sleeping on Central Park benches — before transforming his vision into a billion-dollar fashion empire.

Style Across the Aisle founder Skye Ostreicher, a New York political personality, told Jewish Insider the event’s goal is to build bridges and remove labels — designer labels as well as political and religious ones — that make it easy to reduce people to caricatures. “Very often, when we label someone ‘Jew’ or ‘Zionist,’ it’s easy to hate them versus if you see them as a human first,” she said.

Ostreicher, who identifies as “a proud Jewish woman,” said she worked to include participants of every background. Yusef Salaam, a Muslim member of the New York City Council once wrongly imprisoned as one of the Central Park Five, will walk this year’s runway in a suit designed by a fellow Harlem native who also served time behind bars.

Ostreicher said her red line are designers “who hate Israel,” whom she would not invite to participate. She’d hoped to welcome Mamdani, who — like Mayor Eric Adams before him — was invited to strut the runway, but he won’t be attending, citing a scheduling conflict, Ostreicher said.

“Of course we’re including Jewish designers. I like including everyone, that is always my intention. If Mamdani did want to walk and wear a Muslim designer we would make that happen,” she said. 

This year’s event lands on Sept. 9, days before the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a milestone that Ostreicher asserted makes the case for unity even more timely. 

The runway show also comes as the Met Gala — widely known as fashion’s biggest and most glamorous night, held annually in New York City in May —  is facing mounting backlash for its plans to honor British fashion designer John Galliano, who was convicted more than a decade ago of a hate crime in France for antisemitic remarks.