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tough question: When it comes time to
marshal political support for their caus-
es, just how useful is this well-meaning,
high-profile but somewhat lonely
Orthodox rabbi?
A stark example of the paradox came
in early May at the Orlando, Fla., huge
Evangelicals Israel At 50 rally. Eckstein
refused to attend because of the heavy
involvement by Messianic Jews.
"Unfortunately, the rally in Orlando
is the only one set up for Evangelicals to
celebrate Israel's 50th," he says. "If we in
the Jewish community aren't out there,
pro-actively teaching Evangelicals about
Israel and providing the information
they're thirsting for in uncovering the
Jewish roots of their faith, then they will
turn to those individuals and groups
that are ready to provide them with that
information."

Eckstein insists he can keep faith with
that Jewish perspective and still connect
with his Evangelical audiences.
"Am I naive? Probably," he concedes
in the interview. "I am definitely not
politically astute or adroit, and I don't
want to be."

Groundswell support

Rejected By Jews

Eckstein admits that Jewish skepti-
cism about his motives make it hard for
him to fulfill his self-declared mission as
an intermediary between Jews and the
increasingly powerful conservative
Christian constituency. Yet he persists.
In doing so, he illustrates the difficulty
that confronts even the most sincere
Jewish outreach effort to this group, at
least by someone unwilling to turn
wholeheartedly against the broad Jewish
consensus.
Two years ago, Eckstein, who is 46
but looks years younger, reached a kind
of personal peak speaking before the
Christian Coalition's "Road to Victory"
conference. The 6,000 delegates gave
him a standing ovation before he had
said a word. Most knew him from pre-
vious visits, or from his regular appear-
ances on Evangelical radio and TV
alongside such luminaries as Pat Boone.
He was, in short, greeted as a brother.
This founder of the International
Fellowship of Christians and Jews has
been the leading booster of closer
Jewish-Evangelical ties for more than
two decades. Two years ago he brought
his mission to Washington, where he
quickly established himself as a player in
one of the hottest new issues among
conservatives: fighting religious persecu-
tion overseas, the subject of legislation
working its way through Congress.
But at best many Jews see him as a
naive eccentric, Jimmy Stewart in a
yarmulke, an idealist plunged into the
shark-infested waters of Washington
politics, secular and communal. At
worst, they whisper, he's a kind of turn-
coat, more comfortable with the born-
agains than with Jews, or at least with
Jewish organizations.

5/29

1998

80

CC

won't prostitute myself for Israel,
I won't work with groups that
emphasize conversion."

— Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

"There is an important place for
moral discourse and ethical analysis
in the political setting," says Rabbi
David Saperstein, a Reform Jewish
leader, of the stated goals of Rabbi
Eckstein's outreach efforts. "But he
allowed the conservative elements in
his coalition to set the agenda early
on, and then offered a kind of take-
it-or-leave-it option to the mainline

Jewish groups. That was a serious
misstep."
But Saperstein, director of the
Religious Action Center of Reform
Judaism, hastens to add, "He tells it to
the Evangelical community like it is,
and I have a great deal of respect for
that...He really is trying to be an honest
broker, and I don't think he gets credit
for it."

Two years ago Rabbi Eckstein, a fourth-
generation rabbi, created the Center for
Jewish and Christian Values in
Washington. The selection of a name
foreshadowed some of the challenges he
would face; the original name, the
Center for Judeo-Christian Values, pro-
duced an outcry from some Jewish lead-
ers, who saw it as demeaning.
Surprisingly, the Christian conserva-
tives came in droves, including heavy-
weights like then-Christian Coalition
director Ralph Reed and Family
Research Council head Gary Bauer,
rumored to be a Republican presidential
hopeful for 2000. Many joined his
board of advisers. But Jewish leaders
were cool to the effort; none of the cen-
ter's board of advisers are representatives
of major Jewish groups.
Abraham Foxman, executive director
of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai
B'rith, explains it this way: "It's one
thing to say we need dialogue and
understanding. But I'm not sure about
the way Rabbi Eckstein is doing it. God
bless him; it's a big, wide, wonderful
world, and I didn't have to be part of
what he's doing."
The rabbi's choice of Washington as
the venue for his center probably didn't
help make the case that the endeavor is
nonpolitical. Nor did his choice of an
executive director — Chris Gersten, a
longtime conservative Republican war-
rior.
The new group conducted a series of
seminars on issues like cloning and the
moral impact of Hollywood, and it
sought a leadership role on the issue of
religious persecution overseas, which last
year emerged as a top priority for
groups like the Christian Coalition and
a handful of Jewish conservatives.
Some Jewish leaders were wary of
jumping on board, afraid that the
Christian groups were more interested
in opening the door to proselytization
in those countries, or advancing the
view of people like Christian Coalition
founder Pat Robertson, who argue that
all Christians, even in the United States,
are persecuted because of their uncom-
promising faith.
Eckstein insisted that the center
would engage in political advocacy only
if there was a clear consensus. But on