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Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein (Alon Ron)
Last update - 11:38 22/10/2007
Christian-Jewish group bringing dozens of Iranian Jews to Israel
By Associated Press
Tags: Iran, Israel 

Evangelical Christians in the U.S. have brought dozens of Iranian Jews to Israel in recent months, offering cash incentives and claiming that Iran's tiny Jewish community is in grave danger.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a charity that funnels millions of dollars in evangelical donations to Israel every year, is promising U.S. $10,000 to every Iranian Jew who comes to Israel, said the group's director, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein.

The project is another example of the alliance between the Jewish state and evangelical American Christians, many of whom see the existence of Israel and the return of Jews to the Holy Land as a realization of Biblical prophesy that will culminate with Christ's Second Coming.
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But an Iran expert said the money would not be enough to draw Iranian Jews, who do not perceive themselves to be in grave danger.

Eckstein said his group has helped bring 82 Jews to Israel from Iran since the project began this year, and hopes to bring 60 more by year's end.

About 25,000 Jews are left in Iran, the remnants of a community with origins dating to biblical times. Most Iranian Jews left for Israel or the U.S. over the last 50 years. Israel and Iran are staunch enemies and do not have diplomatic relations.

Repeated calls by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be wiped off the map, coupled with Iran's reported nuclear weapons program, represent danger, Eckstein said.

"Is this not similar to the situation in Nazi Germany in the late '30s, where they (Jews) also felt they could weather the storm?" he asked. Instead, 6 million were killed in the Holocaust.

The charity, based in Jerusalem and Chicago, has raised $1.4 million for the project, Eckstein said. The IFCJ initially offered $5,000 per immigrant, but doubled the amount when response was lower than expected, he said. Immigrants also receive government aid upon arriving in Israel.

One of the recent arrivals, a 31-year-old widow with three children, said she was not in danger in Iran but was concerned for her children's future.

At the end of the day, this is the place for the Jewish people, she said, referring to Israel. She is living in the southern port city of Ashdod.

Though she claimed to have felt safe in her hometown of Isfahan, she asked that her name be withheld to protect family remaining in Iran.

The grant from the IFCJ was what enabled her to come to Israel, she said.

Most Jews in Iran have heard about the grant through word-of-mouth and Israel Radio's broadcasts in Farsi, she said.

Iranian government officials would not comment on the new project.

Iran's Jewish community is technically protected by the Islamic, Republic's constitution, and has one representative in a 290-seat parliament, which is controlled by Islamic clerics.

In a speech at Columbia University in New York last month, the Iranian president insisted that Iranians are friends of the Jewish people. There are many Jews in Iran living peacefully with security.

But the community has led an uneasy existence under the country's Islamic government. In 2000, Iranian authorities arrested 10 Jews, convicted them of spying for Israel and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from four to 13 years. An appeals court later reduced their sentences under international pressure and eventually freed them.

Generally, Jews are free to practice Judaism inside Iran, said Meir Javedanfar, an Israeli analyst whose family emigrated from Iran in the 1980s. Iranian Jews, however, are increasingly concerned about the intensity of attacks on Israel by the Iranian press, which they view as bordering on anti-Semitism, he said.

Such attacks have not led to a mass exodus from Iran, because the majority of Iranians are hospitable to the Jews and most Jews there are well off, Javedanfar said. However, he noted, the level of concern has increased recently because of Ahmadinejad's statements.

Javedanfar said the IFCJ's aid likely won't be enough of a lure to entice Iranian Jews to move to Israel, because most Jews in Iran are economically comfortable. Property values in Tehran have doubled in recent years and are still increasing, he said.

This is not the first time evangelical Christians have taken part in bringing people to Israel. Eckstein's charity also played a role in funding the immigration to Israel of 7,000 members of the Bnei Menashe, a group in India claiming descent from one of the Biblical lost tribes of the Jews.

The charity's evangelical donors, who tend to have hardline political views, see encouraging Jewish immigration as a way of strengthening the country in the face of Arab threats.

The IFCJ is one of the most prominent examples of Israel's alliance with evangelical Christians, who have become among the country's most generous donors and most enthusiastic political supporters.

The ties have been welcomed by many Israelis but criticized by others. Some Israelis believe the country should not align itself with a group seen as an extreme element of American society, while others have charged that the evangelicals' goal is ultimately to convert Jews to Christianity, a charge the evangelicals deny
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  1.   Knee slapping, hilarious propaganda attempt 07:36  |  Natallie Durson 22/10/07
  2.   Jews to Christianity America`s ultimate goal 07:52  |  L A 22/10/07
  3.   i always learn a LOT from articles like these 07:56  |  mike 22/10/07
  4.   Iranians Prefer UK than Israel 08:59  |  Ali 22/10/07
  5.   LA, it gets worse than just the conversion 08:59  |  Rivka 22/10/07
  6.   L A from Israel 09:08  |  Nephtaly 22/10/07
  7.   Israel is not a safe place 09:22  |  Adel 22/10/07
  8.   Israel is not a safe place 09:27  |  Adel 22/10/07
  9.   International Fellowship of Christians and Jews 09:33  |  Gina 22/10/07
  10.   Natalie can`t read? 09:35  |  Gina 22/10/07
  11.   Ahmedinjihad, you little fox 09:48  |  dovale 22/10/07
  12.   Natalie Durson 09:49  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  13.   To Gina #10 09:54  |  Persian Kitty 22/10/07
  14.   To all the Jews that look down upon Christians 09:56  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  15.   T Adel 10:07  |  dovale 22/10/07
  16.   Persian Kitty 10:09  |  Gina 22/10/07
  17.   Gina, google Natallie Durson! 10:21  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  18.   Tulip 10:37  |  Gina 22/10/07
  19.   BS 10:40  |  David 22/10/07
  20.   Bribing 10:43  |  Brenda 22/10/07
  21.   To Tulip 10:46  |  dovale 22/10/07
  22.   Gina on Natallie 10:47  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  23.   One does not have to go far... 10:49  |  Edith 22/10/07
  24.   David from London 10:50  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  25.   PERSIAN KITTY.Persian govt spends millions on Holocaust denial 10:51  |  PETER S .M. 22/10/07
  26.   NDURSON.Any idea how much they would spend to send Moslems home? 10:54  |  PETER S.M. 22/10/07
  27.   Tulip 10:57  |  Gina 22/10/07
  28.   Dovale, I live in Israel... 11:00  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  29.   Nephtaly from Pardesiah 11:03  |  L A 22/10/07
  30.   dovale -- thanks for sharing 11:04  |  Gina 22/10/07
  31.   JEWS FROM ISRAEL SHOULD GO TO IRAN 11:11  |  indrajaya 22/10/07
  32.   LA, how well said 11:16  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  33.   Here we go again - convenient misinterpretation... 11:17  |  Maureen 22/10/07
  34.   Welcome to the club of Replacement Theology, Maureen 11:24  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  35.   christian evangelicals best friend of Israel 11:24  |  nicole 22/10/07
  36.   Natallie Durson your no Jew 11:25  |  Micah 22/10/07
  37.   The IQ of Indrajaya 11:27  |  Tulip 22/10/07
  38.   ALL JEWS COME HOME!!! 11:29  |  Simon 22/10/07
  39.   #26Peter SM. You never know your luck... 11:33  |  Maureen Ann 22/10/07
  40.   you must think about the cost 11:43  |  iranianoilbourse 22/10/07
  41.   Nicole 35 Isn`t Christianity about love not Zionism? 11:46  |  Michael 22/10/07
  42.   Christians Evangelicals are the righteous gentile 11:49  |  Bernard Cohen 22/10/07
  43.   But Israel refuses Jews to come home 11:50  |  Jonathan S 22/10/07
  44.   Natalie 11:55  |  Mark 22/10/07
  45.   to indrajayale 12:01  |  dovale 22/10/07
  46.   MAUREEN N You might get lucky&be relocated as a fellow traveller 12:09  |  PETER S.M. 22/10/07
  47.   To Tulip 12:10  |  dovale 22/10/07
  48.   A Plot! 12:12  |  Roxana from IRAN 22/10/07
  49.   To: Michael #41 12:14  |  Nicole 22/10/07
  50.   Tulip 12:15  |  Shekinah 22/10/07
  51.   Insane 12:15  |  jjvanka 22/10/07
  52.   to Mark #44 12:17  |  Nicole 22/10/07
  53.   Dovale -conversions 12:24  |  Shekinah 22/10/07
  54.   Indrajaya, Jews will go for Iran soon! #31 12:29  |  Jonathan S 22/10/07
  55.   I think you`re misinterpreting Christianity Nicole 12:32  |  Michael 22/10/07
  56.   Naphtaly # 29 12:32  |  Shekinah 22/10/07
  57.   Cash is a good reason for some people! 12:34  |  Roxana from IRAN 22/10/07
  58.   48 Are you saying Jews don`t need Jesus then Nicole? 12:47  |  Michael 22/10/07
  59.   A real cute story about Iranian JEWS, read it! 12:51  |  Roxana from IRAN 22/10/07
  60.   From an Evangelical 12:55  |  Jonathan 22/10/07
  61.   ROXANA You have always "loved"B`hais.How many have been murdered? 13:00  |  PETER S .M. 22/10/07
  62.   Natalie Dur 13:07  |  \Hilda 22/10/07
  63.   Parallels with Germany, 30-x? Is rabbi ...ehh...delirious? 13:10  |  zmogus 22/10/07
  64.   to Michael #55 your`re wrong 13:15  |  nicole 22/10/07
  65.   To Raxanna, in The Democratic state of Iran 13:18  |  dovale 22/10/07
  66.   Michael everybody needs Jesus 13:27  |  nicole 22/10/07
  67.   Building a Jewish state 13:28  |  jackie 22/10/07
  68.   To Shekinah 13:29  |  dovale 22/10/07
  69.   travel to Israel 13:32  |  Jackie 22/10/07
  70.   In the future popular statistics those dozens who followed 10000$ 13:44  |  zmogus