International Fellowship of Christians and Jews

As the national Co-director of Interreligious Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League in Chicago, Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi, began to forge partnerships with evangelical Christians. In 1983, he established the Holyland Fellowship of Christians and Jews to promote Jewish-Christian cooperation on projects for improving the safety and security of Jews in Israel and around the world.[2]

In 1991, the organization was renamed the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

The Fellowship collects over $100 million a year in donations for Israel, half of which are spent in Israel itself, supporting soup kitchens, absorption centers, and bomb shelter renovations. $25 million a year is spent on Jewish aid programs.[3]

In 2003, Eckstein founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Canada;[4] in 2006, La Fraternidad Internacional de Cristianos y Judíos;[5] in 2012, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews of Australia;[6] and, also in 2012, a new Fellowship affiliate in South Korea.[7]

In 2014, Eckstein was awarded the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s prestigious Raoul Wallenberg Award. "Rabbi Eckstein and IFCJ have done so much to help so many of the world’s most vulnerable Jews and we are proud of all that we have done together to reach so many in need," JDC CEO Alan Gill said at the ceremony, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attended.[8]

James Rudin, a senior inter-religious adviser for the American Jewish Community, described Eckstein as "well-respected within the American Jewish mainstream. Until he came along, evangelicals and Jews were like ships passing in the night."[9]

Eckstein died on February 6, 2019.[10] His daughter, Yael Eckstein, succeeded him as president of the Fellowship.[11]

The organization has headquarters in Chicago and Jerusalem. It is supervised by an independent board of directors, Jewish and Christian. In May 2010, Israel’s Minister of Welfare and Social Services Isaac Herzog presented Eckstein with the government of Israel's first-ever Award for Special Contribution to the Welfare of the People of Israel.[12] The following month, Newsweek named him one of the 50 Most Influential Rabbis in America.[13] Eckstein has received about 50 awards total for his public service work, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s prestigious Raoul Wallenberg award in 2014.[14]

In 2005, Eckstein was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the State of Israel, with special emphasis on Israel’s relationships with evangelical communities in Latin America.

The Fellowship's outreach focuses on five major programs:

• On Wings of Eagles assists Jews in making aliyah (immigration) to Israel from the former Soviet Union, Ethiopia, Europe, Arab lands, and other countries around the world, and helps them with their klitah (resettlement).[16]
• Guardians of Israel provides basic necessities to needy Israelis by supporting hundreds of projects such as soup kitchens, and by providing food, clothing and basic medical assistance to be distributed while addressing long-term needs like housing, family care, and jobs.[17]
• Isaiah 58 provides food packages, hot “meals-on-wheels,” medicine, in-home care, housing, heating fuel, clothing, and other basic essentials to more than 200,000 destitute elderly Soviet Jews, and gives Jewish orphans and vulnerable street children in the former Soviet Union the care they need to survive and prepare for a brighter future.[18]
• Stand for Israel rallies churches, Christian leaders and others to advocate for Israel by praying for it and supporting its right to exist in peace and security. The Fellowship aims to “engage people both spiritually and politically on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, by encouraging them to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" and providing them with the facts they need to advocate for the Jewish state and fight anti-Israel bias in the media.”[19][20]
• 4Zion is a pro-Israel initiative geared toward students and a younger generation of Israel supporters.

The organization also supports the Israeli Christian Recruitment Forum, a group led by Gabriel Naddaf, a Greek Orthodox priest from Nazareth, which aims to increase the number of Christian Arabs volunteering to serve in the Israel Defense Forces.[21]

The Fellowship is recognized as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization by the IRS. It submits to examination by the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance. In 2004, The Fellowship was one of the first not-for-profits entitled to display the BBB Charity Seal, showing full compliance with their Standards for Charitable Accountability.[22]

In 2018, according to their tax returns the ministry declared $118 million in "contributions and grants".[23] According to independent American charity watchdog Charity Navigator, 75.4% of expenses went towards programs and services it delivers, 10.1% on Administrative Expenses and 14.3% on Fundraising Expenses.[24]

The organization raises around $130 million per year, largely from evangelical Christian sources, and has raised an estimated total of $1.4 billion since 1983.[11]

In 2009, six months before his death, the Lithuanian-Haredi Jewish leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv issued a ruling banning Haredi Jews from taking funds from the Fellowship, citing worries of Christian missionary activity and idol worship.[25][26] In response to the ruling, Eckstein said he would "expose his organization's list of Haredi-religious beneficiaries in order "to make sure everything is transparent."[25]

The Fellowship's interfaith work has generated criticism from some in the Jewish community. In 2001, Rabbi Avraham Shapira, an Orthodox Jew and Religious Zionist, issued a ruling against accepting funds from the Fellowship.[25] In 2002 the Edah HaChareidis Haredi Jewish rabbinical court issued a ruling against accepting funds from the Fellowship, and, in 2007, the new Chief Rabbi of the said Edah HaChareidis, Yitzchok Tuvia Weiss added his signature.[27]

• American Jewish Committee
• International Council of Christians and Jews, an unrelated group also engaged in Christian-Jewish dialogue
• John Paul II Center for Interreligious Dialogue
• Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue
• Project Interchange
• Zionism

• IFCJ official website