Say Hello to Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Karam

Rabbi Eckstein is the president and founder of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). The IFCJ is neither Republican nor Democratic, neither conservative nor liberal. Instead of ideology, the organization stresses fundamental human decency and campaigns to, among other things, help out the poor, the elderly, and the needy in Israel. It also works to build bridges between the Jewish communities and the Christian communities in the United States and elsewhere:

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was founded in 1983 by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein to promote understanding between Jews and Christians and build broad support for Israel and other shared concerns. Our ministry's vision is that Jews and Christians will reverse their 2,000-year history of discord and replace it with a relationship marked by dialogue, respect and cooperation.

That sounds good to me.

One of the things that we need to do is strengthen our friendship with Evangelical Christians who tend to be largely supportive of the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Most malicious "progressives" will tell you that the only reason that Evangelicals are supportive of Israel is out of some crazed End Of Days eschatology wherein, with the second coming of Jesus, he will then go about showing both Hitler and the Catholic Church how the Jews should have been dealt with.

This is largely nonsense. Most Evangelicals are supportive of Israel not out of theocratic malice toward Jews, but out of an understanding that their own faith is grounded in Judaism and the land of Israel.

That's why they support Israel. To think otherwise is to project one's own malice onto others.

The Fellowship's success has far exceeded expectations. Over the years, we have been leaders in Jewish-Christian relations, building bridges of goodwill that have led to greater understanding and cooperation between members of these two great faiths. We have helped hundreds of thousands of Jews escape poverty and anti-Semitism and return to their biblical homeland, funded humanitarian assistance that has touched the lives of millions of Jews in Israel and around the world, provided life-giving aid to Israel’s victims of war and terror, and much more.

One of the themes of this blog is encouraging Jewish people to understand who our friends are and who they are not. Those who defame the Jewish state are not a friend to the Jewish people even if they claim that their derogation of Israel, and various Jewish organizations, are really for our own best benefit. How stupefied must one be to honestly believe that those who denigrate and deride are actually friends and those who help and support are not?

Evangelical Christianity has emerged as the best friend that Israel has in the world outside of diaspora Jewry. In return we do nothing but spit hatred at those people. I find it disgraceful. We need not agree with everything that they stand for in order to acknowledge their friendship toward us. We can even work to reform their movement a little by encouraging a more liberal attitude toward Gay people, and so forth.

Let us stop hating our friends and befriending our enemies.

I would encourage any of you guys to look into and support this organization.

Here's the Rabbi:



Sure, the video is a little hokey, but if you don't see the fundamental human decency of what this man has to say then the problem is most certainly not with him.