Four hundred people, most of them either Jewish or evangelical Christian, gathered in the Loop last night to celebrate a quarter century of their work in the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

The goal: to help Jews around the world, but especially the nation of Israel.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. was there last night at the Palmer House. So was one of the early leaders of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, 74-year-old singer Pat Boone, who is Christian but says, with a smile, that he represents the Messianic branch of Judaism.

"The time will come when Jews themselves will say, ‘What do you know? The messiah has been here all this time.’ So that’s what we believe, and we long for. Not that we try to force it on anybody. And we understand why they don’t see that yet. Maybe some never will."

Pat Boone was not wearing his trademark white bucks shoes. But he did sport a McCain pin.