IFCJ head: We responded to COVID-19 challenge immediately

Interviewed by Jerusalem Report editor Steve Linde at the Jerusalem Post’s virtual conference, ‘COVID-19 and the Jews: Challenges and Opportunities,’ Yael Eckstein, president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, said that the Fellowship was able to respond to the corona pandemic immediately. “Within the first day of the elderly being forced to stay home, we brought over 30,000 food packages for the elderly, and when we saw that hospitals had to open emergency centers for COVID treatment, we provided them with respirators and other emergency equipment that they would need.”

Eckstein noted that more and more people are turning to the Fellowship for assistance with basic living expenses, because many other non-profit organizations do not have sufficient resources at this difficult time. She pointed out that Christian support for support for Israel is critical, and the Fellowship is 20% ahead of its budget projections, due to the generous assistance that is has received from this community.

Eckstein added that throughout the crisis, the IFCJ, together with the Jewish Agency, has helped bring new immigrants to Israel from Venezuela, Peru, Ukraine, and Russia, and has worked with the Israeli government to obtain NIS 5 million in funding to distribute to poor families throughout the country. 

Eckstein, who has headed the organization since the passing of its founder, her father Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, said that her father planted roots in a mission that he believed in – Jewish- Christian relations. “It’s not just a job,” said Eckstein. “It is a calling and a mission.”