International Fellowship of Christians and Jews: Hope and a Future for the Jewish People

These words, by the prophet Jeremiah, were from one of the last messages shared by my abba, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, of blessed memory. These biblical words guided my father as he founded The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship) 40 years ago with the goal of bringing together Christians and Jews in order to give “hope and a future” to Jewish people in need – in Israel, in the former Soviet Union, and around the world.

After my father’s unexpected passing four years ago, these same words guided me, as I lead The Fellowship into a new era of providing aid, of providing hope, and of providing a future for the Jewish people. Little did I know the plans God had for The Fellowship.

Last year, The Fellowship raised more than $200 million, nearly double what we raised four years ago. Over the past year alone, The Fellowship was able to help more than two million people – two million people who’ve been given hope and a future. And none of this would have been possible without our more than 600,000 donors, people of faith from all around the world who have come together because of their love for the Jewish state and the Jewish people, and their desire to be part of God’s plan to prosper them.

The Fellowship’s donors – over 600,000 people of faith who have come together with the common purpose of providing lifesaving aid to the Jewish people – have allowed us to carry on this legacy for four decades and continue the work we have done, changing with the times, providing on-the-ground aid whenever and wherever it is needed most, and growing to provide even more aid each year.

And our donors’ sacrificial giving aligns with these goals of providing prosperity, hope, and a future, as they support the three main areas in which we help the Jewish people: alleviating poverty, assisting with aliyah to Israel, and providing security to Jews around the world.

Alleviating poverty

“I do not think that I would make it without their help.” That’s what I was told recently by a 100-year-old Jewish woman named Nina, who thanked me for The Fellowship’s help in providing her with food, heat during the winter, and companionship. A Jewish woman originally from Egypt, Nina made aliyah with her family in the earliest days of the modern Jewish state, escaping postwar anti-Semitism and becoming “pioneers in Israel.” But in her golden years, Nina has little support, and has come to depend on The Fellowship.

And Nina is just one of nearly 850,000 people in Israel in the past year alone whose basic needs have been met by The Fellowship. Our 40 soup kitchens distributed 1.8 million meals and tens of thousands of food boxes to the hungry in Israel, including thousands of elderly and Holocaust survivors. More than 399,000 Jewish people received holiday assistance, allowing them to observe the holiest days with dignity. All of this thanks to our donors and the power of their giving.

But the people of Israel are not the only ones who depend on The Fellowship for help and hope. For over 30 years, we have been on the ground in the former Soviet Union (FSU) – providing food, medicine, and heat to impoverished Jewish communities across the region and supporting Jewish orphanages, children’s homes, senior centers, and other institutions. Last year alone, The Fellowship provided basic needs to more than 191,000 people across the FSU, including more than 100,000 elderly and Holocaust survivors.

Those needs only increased, this past year, as war came to the people of Ukraine. Having been on-the-ground there for three decades, The Fellowship was uniquely situated among aid organizations – already connected with local institutions, already equipped to act, already mobilized when the unthinkable happened and war arrived.

During the first year of the war in Ukraine, Fellowship donors have allowed us to provide $28 million in emergency humanitarian aid to the people of the war-torn region. That aid is just for the basic needs – food, drinking water, medications, winter heat and warm clothes, and housing – that the thousands of Jewish people there who depend on The Fellowship need to survive. As the war continues, so has our aid, including seven plane loads carrying 95 tons of emergency aid for those still stranded in Ukraine.

Forty years of providing aid to Jewish people has shown us the poverty faced by people in Israel, by Holocaust survivors and Jewish elderly, by struggling families, and by children. And these 40 years have shown us that the reason we can help all of these needy Jewish people is because of one thing – the compassion of our donors. As they give, we are able to provide more Jewish people with hope and prosperity.

Making aliyah

“I was scared, because I heard bombs. Thank God we’re here.” Those are the words of Daniel, a 16-year-old Jewish boy from Odesa, Ukraine. Daniel was left by his mother, along with his 5-year-old brother with special needs, at a Fellowship-supported orphanage, in the hopes we could rescue them from the war-torn country, that The Fellowship could help these two boys find safety.

During a daring military-style operation, 100 children were whisked out of Odesa – many of them without documentation – and taken to safety on the Moldova border… and then to Israel. Daniel and his brother were two of these children who now have a future in Israel, thanks to the power of our donors’ faith and their giving.

In fact, since the war in Ukraine began a year ago, The Fellowship has helped more than 5,000 Ukrainian Jews make aliyah to Israel. Within days of the Russian invasion, we established an aliyah office on Ukraine’s border with Moldova, a base of operations for these thousands of Jewish people dreaming of a new life in the Holy Land.

These were not the only Jewish people assisted by The Fellowship in making aliyah. This past year, 9,000 olim from 29 different countries came home to Israel on Fellowship flights. And since simply arriving at Ben Gurion airport is only the beginning, The Fellowship continues to assist new olim with housing, education, and other assistance as they resettle into new lives and new futures in Israel. And with more than 770,000 olim already brought to Israel, The Fellowship’s donors will continue to assure the future of the Jewish state with each new Israeli they help make aliyah.

Providing security

“There’s almost nothing left.” That’s what Tatiana – an elderly Jewish woman trapped in Ukraine with her housebound husband – recently told The Fellowship. “Phosphorous bombs and rockets are being fired at the city. The residents who could have left. My husband and I could not leave, so we survive as best we can.”

For so many of the Jewish people who The Fellowship helps, basic aid is not enough. For those facing war, for those facing anti-Semitic hatred and violence, and especially for those in Israel facing terror, The Fellowship’s donors provide lifesaving security. In 2022, 800,000 people in 11 countries were safer because of The Fellowship.

Our supporters stand for Israel and are all too aware of the many security threats her people face. Because of their concern, The Fellowship has been able to place 3,000 bomb shelters in Israel. Because of their generosity, Israeli first responders have received new equipment and Israeli hospitals have been fortified against rocket attacks. And because of their giving, last year alone found 72,000 soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces receiving basic assistance and care from The Fellowship, allowing them to better provide for the safety and security of the people of Israel.

In the message written shortly before his passing, after quoting the words of Jeremiah, my abba also said, “God has a plan for all of us, individually and collectively. And this biblical promise tells us that, despite the problems we may face, God’s intention for us is good.” For 40 years, The Fellowship’s donors have clung to those biblical promises of hope, of a future, of prosperity – allowing us to alleviate poverty, to assist with aliyah, and to provide security for the Jewish people. And for the next 40 years and beyond, the power of their giving will allow us to support Israel and the Jewish people like our world has never seen.

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Partnered with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews