God's Blank Check

How Christian Zionists became Israel's most powerful American ally and reshaped Mideast policy

- BY: Kiera Butler

Yael Eckstein is an incredibly effective advocate for Israel.

As the president and global CEO of a massive Israel-focused philanthropy, she oversees humanitarian relief, security programs, social services for elderly Holocaust survivors, and Jewish resettlement. On her weekly podcasts, she ties biblical teachings to modern Israel and personal stories from her own life in Jerusalem. At 41, Eckstein, a native of the Chicago suburbs and an Orthodox Jew who now lives in Israel, has enjoyed recognition for her leadership and philanthropic impact, earning a spot on the Jerusalem Post's “50 Most Influential Jews” four times from 2020 to 2024 and receiving its Humanitarian Award in 2023. That year, her nonprofit brought in $271 million, significantly more than better-known nonprofits like Amnesty International USA, the ACLU Foundation, and Human Rights Watch.

By this point, you may have noticed that I haven't yet told you the name of Eckstein's organization. It's not the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, known as AIPAC, or the Anti-Defamation League. Eckstein's group raised more money in 2023 than both combined. Those groups primarily target Jewish donors for their fundraising, but according to a spokesperson for Eckstein's organization, 92 percent of its donors are Christians. Since 1983, when Eckstein's father, a rabbi, founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, the group says it has raised a staggering $3.6 billion for Israel and to support the Jewish people more generally. Since the death of Eckstein's father in 2019, the group has more than doubled its revenue.