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Close Up
ill, The
Ramp frt.: tlitt
Sympathetic ear: Past Christian head Ralph Reed
6. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.
How did
this rabbi,
student of
Buddhism,
and Democrat
become the
Christian right's
darling?
hington — The tall,
spindly man on the podi-
um, the one with the boy-
ish face and the black
ilils
yarmulke, has the roomful of
Evangelicals rocking. Foreign as the turf
might seem, he is in a comfort zone,
this Orthodox rabbi and Yeshiva
University graduate, before his powerful
Christian hosts. He is, in the vernacular
of the day, building bridges, crossing
over, looking for common ground.
Earlier speakers already have primed
the faithful with jabs at the president, at
the "liberal" media, at Hollywood, at
secularists, atheists, Democrats and
abortion rights activists. But this one
has something else on his mind: the
country's atrophying moral fiber.
"I am convinced that if Christians
were better Christians and Jews were
better Jews, we'd have a better nation,"
he says, knowing just what buttons to
push. The crowd roars its approval.
He speaks in a quiet voice, but
Eckstein's coaxing cadences are those of
a Pentecostal preacher, an odd mix of
Jewish thought backed by Hebrew
quotes and the mannerisms of a televan-
gelist.
Of course, what Rabbi Yechiel
Eckstein does not confess might give
them pause: A Democrat, this natural
communicator is generally pro-choice
and dabbles in Buddhist philsophy.
"My job — my 'calling,' to use that
Christian term — is as a bridge
builder," he says in an interview.
Yet Eckstein also readily concedes that
his closeness with the Evangelicals cre-
ates "fear and revulsion" among many in
the Jewish community. He says he
wants to be considered "a brother" to
the Evangelicals. But to many Jews he
comes across as The Brother From
Another Planet. Some of the politic-Ay
minded conservative Christian leaders
he cultivates are also beginning to ask a
JAMES D. BESSER
Washington Correspondent
Seat of Power: From left
to right: Senator Loyd
Ogilvie, Rabbi Yechiel
Eckstein, Senator
Connie Mack and
Senator Joe Lieberman
5/29
1998
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