The Bridge Builder
The Life and Continuing Legacy of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
The amazing story of Yechiel Eckstein, a Chicago-based orthodox rabbi who founded the world’s largest philanthropic organization of Evangelical Christians in support of Israel.
When the Anti-Defamation League sent a young Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein to Chicago to foster interfaith relations in the late 1970’s, he was surprised to see how responsive Christian evangelicals were to the cause of supporting and defending Israel.
Eckstein founded The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews in 1983 to promote cross-cultural understanding and build broad support for Israel, Soviet Jewry, and other shared concerns. The Fellowship has grown and thrived over the last three decades, raising more than $1.1 billion, and is one of the largest 50 NGOs in America today. American Christians have become one of Israel’s most reliable sources of financial and moral support.
Few people realize that Eckstein and The Fellowship have done an unprecedented good deed in bridging an ancient cultural gap. Renowned journalist Zev Chafets explores Eckstein’s role in this important interfaith evolution, showing how an American rabbi made major progress in promoting dialogue, cooperation, and mutual respect in the face of harsh and unrelenting opposition.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chafets (Roger Ailes: Off Camera), an American-Israeli author and former columnist for the New York Daily News, provides a glowing authorized biography of Rabbi Eckstein, an Orthodox rabbi best known for his efforts to build bridges between American Jews and Evangelical Christians. In the first pages he concedes that he is a personal friend of the subject, and that he went into the project "liking and admiring" Eckstein. However, despite his bias, Chafets offers a balanced look at Eckstein's life, primarily tracing his willingness to look beyond his parochial community, which eventually led to his groundbreaking efforts. Eckstein reached out to non-Jews who were widely viewed as intent on converting Jews to Christianity, and used the relationships he developed with them to fund humanitarian efforts around the world. But no matter how much Chafets gushes about a man who is a hero to him, some readers will still be skeptical of the motives of Eckstein's evangelical allies.
