Four hundred women who gathered for Wednesday’s 2018 JUF Lion Luncheon heard from two other powerful women — this year’s Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award honoree Merle Cohen, and “60 Minutes” and CBS News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Lara Logan.

Held this year at Chicago’s Standard Club, the luncheon — which raised a record $3.5 million — honors philanthropic women who contribute to JUF at the “Lion of Judah Level” of $5,000-plus. The event featured the presentation of the Kipnis-Wilson/Friedland Award , given biannually to women who demonstrate exceptional commitment to the Jewish community.

JUF Women’s Board President Adrienne Kriezelman presented this year’s award to Cohen, a dedicated leader in the Chicago Jewish community for 50 years.

“Merle Cohen calls her Lion of Judah pin the most important piece of jewelry she has ever owned,” Kriezelman said. “That summarizes everything you need to know about Merle. She is a community treasure.”

Cohen, who received a rousing standing ovation, said: “I’m honored to receive this award for doing something I have loved so much, that has given purpose to my life.”

Deborah Schrayer Karmin, JUF Women’s Board Vice President-Campaign, gave the event’s moving fundraising pitch.

Karmin told the women that when she was a little girl, she modeled in JUF’s Jewish Children’s Bureau Fashion Show. When she complained that her shoes hurt, her mother explained how the fashion show helped children in need-and suddenly, young Karmin understood. “The black patent leather shoes stopped hurting that day, and with each step from that day forward the power of community and generosity has filled my life with extraordinary meaning,” she said. “Somehow, even as little girls, we can begin to learn to walk in someone else’s shoes.”

Event Chair Sharon Koltin was one of several women who gave moving testimonials about why JUF and its agencies have been essential to their lives.

“My parents are both Holocaust survivors,” Koltin said. “JUF has touched my life for as long as I can remember. My parents have credited JUF with bringing them from a place of despair to a place of new opportunity.”

Susan Insoft shared her thoughts as the mother of a young man with autism: “I have worried about what happens after graduation, and more so, after I am gone.” She thanked JUF for helping to support Keshet, which provides services to persons with disabilities. “My family and I thank you for helping to change my son’s life.”

This year marks the 25 ^th anniversary of the Lion of Judah Endowment program. “I am proud to be among the 174 women in Chicago who have chosen to leave a lasting legacy for our community’s future,” said Wendy Abrams, chair of National Women’s Philanthropy for the Jewish Federations of North America, who lit a candle in memory of those who had endowed their Lion gifts as a lasting legacy.

The room fell silent as award-winning journalist Logan bravely recounted the horrific events leading up to her brutal rape in Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the Arab Spring in 2011.

The week before the uprising, Logan and her CBS crew were arrested and detained by the Egyptian Army. The crew was blindfolded and handcuffed at gunpoint and their driver was beaten. They were advised to leave the country, which they did.

However, they returned the following week. “Ten minutes after we landed in Cairo, Hosni Mubarak stepped down,” Logan said. “All I could think about was getting to Tahrir Square.”

She had been reporting on the celebrations for about an hour when her cameraman’s battery went out. “One of the Egyptian crew members heard something, and his face went white. He said we have to get out of there, so we decided to run, but we got too far from the crowd,” she said. “He told me later was that what he heard them say was ‘let’s take off her clothes.'”

Moments later, hundreds of men were pulling her body in different directions.

“I thought about my children and I thought, ‘how can you give up on them?” she said. “I literally thought in my head, ‘I’m going to die fighting — so they’ll know they didn’t get all of me.'”

Ultimately, Logan’s bodyguard brought in soldiers who beat the mob away.

Logan said that one reasons she has spoken out is to be a voice for anyone who needs it. “They took a lot from me that night, but they don’t get to have the rest of me and the rest of my life. I am not a victim lying in Tahrir Square,” Logan said. “If I can be a path for people to find their own healing, I consider that a gift.”

Rochelle Newman Rubinoff is a freelance writer living in the northern suburbs of Chicago.