Febraury 14 • 2019 53
jn
soul
of blessed memory
Yael, works at the ICFJ as global exec-
utive vice president.
Despite the posthumous embrace,
Eckstein had a thorny relationship
with the Jewish establishment most
everywhere he went. Critics consid-
ered him a tacky manipulator of pub-
lic opinion with a mercurial temper
and an overgrown ego.
Most recently, he clashed publicly
with the Jewish Agency, to which his
group had donated many millions of
dollars over the years. The funding
stopped in 2014 amid a fight over
recognition for the ICFJ by the agency
and Eckstein’
s long-held reservations
about the agency’
s efficiency in fulfill-
ing its main task: facilitating immigra-
tion of Jews to Israel, or aliyah.
That year, Eckstein had the ICFJ
start its own aliyah operation. He
offered every new immigrant a $1,000
grant on top of benefits offered by
the Jewish Agency. And he helped
bring thousands of immigrants from
Ukraine during its conflict with
Russia, France, Venezuela, Yemen and
other trouble spots for Jews.
But Eckstein’
s outreach to
Christians made him a pariah for
many years of Israel’
s chief rabbinate.
In 2001, Israel’
s then chief
Ashkenazi rabbi, Avraham Shapira,
published a letter condemning
Eckstein’
s use of Christian money to
“expand Christian missionary propa-
ganda.
” Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv,
an influential haredi Orthodox
Talmud scholar, signed a letter for-
bidding cooperation with Eckstein,
calling it “close to idolatry.
”
Eckstein, who dismissed the chief
rabbinate’
s attacks as not worthy of a
response, angered some of his nation-
alist critics with his group’
s support
to the tune of millions of dollars for
Israeli Arabs, Christians and Muslims.
Despite repeated conflicts over
the years with establishment figures
and bodies, the scale of Eckstein’
s
work made his organization too big
to ignore or sideline, forcing even his
most outspoken critics to work with
him or get out of his way.
Thanks to Eckstein, “today so many
Christians from around the world
stand in fellowship with Israel,
” Rabbi
Tuly Weisz, an author and publisher
of the Israel National News website,
wrote in an obituary. “We, Jews and
Christians together, mourn the tragic
loss of a true bridge builder.
” ■
continued from page 51
W
e hear kind words consistently
.W
e’re proud that
people feel comfortable enough with us to openly tell
us how much they appreciate what we did for them.
In fact,it’s this appreciation that drives us to offer the
very best in comfort,compassion and service.
‘‘They were
wonderful.
’’
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