It began a long, long time ago.
In October or November 1986 as I recall. I had just been installed as the Board Chair of my Federation, working in my office in Chicago's Loop, when I received a call from Steve Nasatir's Assistant asking me to please come over to the Federation offices "for a minute or two." I'm pretty sure I asked why, but, perhaps not. I walked the few blocks to the then Chicago Federation building where one of the senior federation Campaign professionals was waiting to intercept me. He was carrying a check facsimile -- about 4 feet by 10 feet -- in the amount of $100,000 payable to Chicago's JUF.
Holding the opposite corner of this facsimile was a tall, handsome fellow, wearing a kippah and smiling. "Richard, meet Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein; he's started up an organization, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, raising money within the Christian Evangelical movement to support Jews living in poverty in Eastern Europe and Israel."
And, so it began -- one can draw a through-line from that date in 1986 to the recent sad case of the Jewish Agency's alleged termination of a partnership with a messianic Christian organization -- Canada's Return Ministries -- in the operation of a Jewish Agency company's project in the Galilee....and, perhaps, more.
From that 1st check, Rabbi Eckstein, z'l, built the IFCJ empire that his daughter continues on today with strength after the sudden death of Yechiel almost 2 years ago to the day. From my few blocks' long journey to pose, JUF professionals were soon traveling worldwide for photo-ops with ever-larger checks. And Rabbi Eckstein's ever-larger appetite for promotion led to his demands for greater recognition.
From Chicago, those checks grew to become a contribution to the Jewish Agency through the United Jewish Appeal, then through Keren Ha'Yesod and, feeling insufficiently appreciated, direct allocations to the Jewish Agency itself -- contributions that soon approached those of the largest Federations. Rabbi Eckstein was first rewarded by JAFI with a constant barrage of thanks, then the Chairmanship of the JA Aliyah Department (in which, candidly, it appeared he had not much interest) and a seat on the Agency Executive and speaking privileges at all meetings with the Prime Minister. As the JAFI/Eckstein relationship cratered, a parallel partnership with the JDC flourished.
The IFCJ-JA "partnership" ultimately fell apart with mutual recriminations after Yechiel demanded equal status with the Jewish Federations on JAFI letterhead. Agency personnel had agreed to the new reflection of the IFCJ status as the first decade of the new Millennium drew to a close. The federations had not been consulted and, when they were told, they just said "no," the promises made to Yechiel notwithstanding. Agency leadership responded by asserting that no such deal on status had ever been agreed to; inasmuch as Eckstein was carrying around mock-ups of the proposed new letterhead, it appeared that a deal had been made.
Never one to sit back, always citing his 100's of 1000's of donors, Yechiel pulled his dollars from JAFI and became JDC's new partner. The IFCJ began running its own Aliyah flights with its own basket of absorption benefits and its own deal with the Government. Fast-forwarding to the last months of 2020, the IFCJ and JAFI are once again working together to the credit of JA Chair of the Executive, Bougie Herzog, and Yael Eckstein.
BTW, if any (or all) of this resonates as familiar, reread the Return Ministries-JA balagan at your leisure.
The relationship between the Jewish Agency and Rabbi Eckstein was mutually beneficial -- the JA reaped 10's of millions in grants and the IFCJ received promotion of its works that it might not otherwise have received benefitting its fund-raising. Rabbi Eckstein's leadership assured that the donations he collected supported the Jewish Agency's work without even the fear that the Fellowship would in any way engage in conversion efforts or proselytizing --the only thing that Eckstein proselytized about was greater donations and the great benefits to the State of Israel from the growing support of Evangelical Christianity.
And, then, suddenly the Fellowship ATM was closed; the Jewish Agency, already suffering the affects of Federation/JFNA allocations collapsing, began thrashing about for other funding sources. And, voila, missionary evangelicals to the "rescue." Some have suggested that the Return Ministries debacle was but the tip of a growing iceberg of Agency indifference to evangelical proselytizing as long as the money for JAFI was there -- what some would call "turning a blind eye."
One can only hope and pray that the Return Ministries embroglio was an aberration; a one-off not to be repeated. But, the Jewish Agency's financial desperation has only grown. So, even greater vigilance is vital.
Now...
Rwexler
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