In an interview with Maayan Hoffman, Deputy CEO - Strategy & Innovation for the Jerusalem Post Group at the Second Front Conference, Yael Eckstein, president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, said that Evangelical Christians supported Israel before the October 7 massacre and continue to stand with Israel.
Eckstein said that while there were righteous Christians who acted to save Jews during the Holocaust, among them Oskar Schindler and Corrie ten Boom, today, there are far more who support the State of Israel. “It is different now than it was 80 years ago. If we would plant a tree for every Christian who is standing with Israel now, we would have a forest covering an entire continent.”
She added that the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was in an immediate position to act following the events of October 7 and donated $15 million in the first weeks of the war. “We have been investing in security infrastructure for years and have been in contact with security heads in the northern and southern border of Israel since the Second Lebanon War in 2006,” said Eckstein.
“On October 7, we were working both with the Home Front Command and with local municipalities in Beersheva, Sderot, and Shaar Hanegev, bringing preparing food to people in their bomb shelters, and preparing food for after the 30 hours when people from the kibbutzim were released from the shelters. Since that day, we’ve learned that needs change quickly.
'We have been able to shift and accommodate, through partnerships with local municipalities and local organizations and through our ability to identify a need and implement those programs if there is no other answer.” Eckstein cited the Fellowship’s donation of 4,200 flak jackets, helmets, and security gear to civilian first responders as an example of the organization’s ability to assess and provide what was needed.
“We are telling the people of Israel that you are not alone,” she said. “Never again will you be alone. There are millions of Jews and Christians who stand with you.”
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