ECKSTEIN...CALLING IT LIKE IT ISN'T?

Among the sure things in Jewish organizational life that you can count on: if he hasn't been mentioned in the Jewish media for more than 30 days, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the Donald Trump of the charity world, will reappear to (a) trumpet his personal achievements and (b) kvetch about the organized Jewish communities refusal to recognize his triumphs and (c) appear in a posed photo with a refugee or impoverished Israeli or Holocaust Survivor. And, sure enough, as the chagim approached, there he was again in an article in The Jerusalem Post -- http://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/IFCJs-Eckstein-decries-failures-of-Jewish-charities-415051 (September3, 2015) -- yes, IFCJ's Eckstein Decries Failures of Jewish Charities. I can picture the moment in the press room of The Jerusalem Post: "Hey, it's the IFCJ calling again. Get out the annual Eckstein article and print it."

Nothing herein is to deprecate the good works that the IFCJ starts (and, even sometimes, finishes) or Eckstein's fund raising acumen. But always...always...Yechiel's ego begins to creep in and, as in the case with JAFI (where his demands, among others, of a co-equal space on the JAFI letterhead with Keren Ha'Yesod and the Federation system -- even as those over their history have allocated hundreds of millions to JAFI -- were turned down), eventually led to a public argument and a public split. It appears that all Eckstein institutional relationships end up shattered.

Earlier this year, you will recall, Yechiel attacked the Jewish Agency upon withdrawing the IFCJ funding of Jewish Agency activities and, instead, setting up his (and I use the pronoun "his" with precision) own IFCJ small scale aliya program in the Ukraine -- a program he has since expanded. I have always wondered how the Fellowship's decisions are made -- there is a Board out there somewhere but it certainly appears that, the many staff members notwithstanding, this is a one man show -- and Yechiel assures that that "one man" will be...Yechiel. Now, he has expanded the scope of his wrath beyond JAFI to "Jewish charities."

Why?

Well, it seems that "organized Jewish charities" -- viz, federations and their ilk -- may not share Rabbi Eckstein's stated and unstated goals. And, to Rabbi Eckstein, they are, therefore, ignoring their responsibilities. So, what's Yechiel upset about now?

"Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Eckstein said that mainstream Jewish philanthropy was not adequately addressing issues such as the security of Jewish institutions in vulnerable countries, the welfare of Holocaust survivors in both Israel and the Diaspora, and bringing Jewish Ukrainian refugees to Israel."

Of course, as Eckstein well knows (as he serves or has served on the Boards and Executive Committees of the Jewish Agency and the JDC) the federation system's partners (at least those JFNA calls "partners") have continuously "addressed" these matters. And, through the efforts of the Claims Conference has been allocating hundreds of millions over the decades focused on Holocaust survivors and, with the JDC, rebuilding Jewish communities "in vulnerable countries." And, one can question whether Eckstein would be complaining about let alone operating his own aliya operation in Ukraine has the Jewish Agency merely capitulated to his multiple-paged list of demands that he nailed to the Sachnut door.

Yes, I have decried the federations and JFNA's abandonment of their overseas responsibilities reflected in the lowest allocations to the core budgets of JAFI and JDC, but I also have long experienced the disingenuous attacks of Rabbi Eckstein on the system when it serves his own purposes. So, when I read something like this in the Post, I can only laugh:

"He also criticized such charities for having excluded the IFCJ from public collaboration with them"

Sorry, Yechiel, but the reality is quite different, isn't it? And that reality is that it is Yechiel Eckstein who has serially killed his and his IFCJ's collaboration with: the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, the United Jewish Appeal and, most recently, the Jewish Agency -- each time with anger and wholly imagined slights. Could the JDC be next?

Well, probably not given that the Joint is willing to stoop as low as institutionally possible to maintain its relationship with the IFCJ. Example? On the day after we observed Rosh Ha'Shanah 5776, the JDC bought an ad in at least The Jerusalem Post celebrating not the Holiday but...

"The Joint...wishes the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, under the leadership of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

                     Shana Tova -- a sweet and happy New Year

JDC is a proud operational partner of IFCJ, providing food and medicine to needy..."

Maybe that ad will buy JDC another year of peace with the IFCJ, but the Joint's leaders must know that you can't buy Yechiel's eternal partnership, as said about others you can only rent it for a while. And, when it all falls apart, as inevitably it will, it will be the Joint's fault for sure.


Again, none of this is to deprecate the often wonderful work the IFCJ has led, the important contributions Yechiel has made to the creative survival of our People. But every contribution seems to require being accompanied by public whining and the constant need for coddling and supplication. And that's never going to change.

Rwexler