Evangelical Christians key donors for Jews moving to Israel

(8 Mar 2018) LEAD-IN: An increasing number of Jewish immigrants arriving in Israel are being funded by Christian evangelicals. Attitudes in Israel toward evangelicals are evolving.   Long held scepticism about Christian Zionist motives is waning, with more Israelis starting to believe they are not in a position to turn down funds or the potential political and tourism boost the Christians can provide. STORYLINE : A gaggle of young volunteers crowds into the airport arrivals hall, waving Israeli flags and chanting upbeat Israeli folk songs. "Welcome to Israel," they yell, as a stream of new immigrants, lugging their entire lives on their baggage carts, filters through them. These Jewish immigrants are some of the thousands being brought to Israel not by traditional Jewish donors but by evangelical Christians. This arrival has been organised by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews What was once a strictly Jewish-funded mission to bring Jews to Israel is increasingly being bankrolled by evangelical Christians. Israel's Christian allies now fund a third of all immigrants moving to the country, according to a tally by the Associated Press. The figures represent an unexpected wrinkle in the history of immigration to Israel and reflect the ever tightening relationship between Israel and its evangelical Christian allies, whom Israel has come to count on for everything from political support to tourism dollars. "Christians have directly brought over 750,000 Jews to Israel. That started with the Soviet or Russian Jews, it continued with Ethiopian Jews, where we brought most of the Ethiopians. It's continued with some of these lost tribes, Bnei Menashe from India, but today we bring from 28 countries and roughly it's grown each year since we started our own Aliyah program," says Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a group that raises money from evangelical Christians for Jewish causes. Israel has long depended on diaspora Jewish communities to send donations and lobby their local governments on its behalf, but evangelical communities are becoming increasingly important bases of support. Local charities raise millions of dollars from Christian friends around the world, evangelical Christians make up a sizeable segment of the tourism industry and an Israeli parliamentary caucus works with evangelical legislators to foster support for Israel. Perhaps most importantly, white evangelicals helped propel President Donald Trump to victory and their continuing support has underpinned his Mideast policies, which are perceived as favoring Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called evangelicals some of the country's greatest friends. Immigration to Israel, known as "Aliyah," literally ascending, was championed before the creation of the state by European and American Jewish philanthropists who devoted their cash to settling Jews in what was then Ottoman and British Palestine. Zionist leaders founded the Jewish Agency for Palestine to facilitate the efforts and after Israel declared independence in 1948, the government along with the rebranded Jewish Agency for Israel, a non-profit traditionally funded by diaspora Jewish communities, spearheaded the work. Over the decades, the Jewish Agency, in partnership with the state, has organised dramatic covert airlifts of Jews from troubled countries and has been the main facilitator of immigration. Of the more than 28,000 Jews who immigrated to Israel in 2017, at least 8,500 arrived thanks to Christian donations, according to official figures and numbers provided by the Fellowship and Jerusalem's International Christian Embassy, another prominent group that raises money from evangelicals. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/aa53ba53650ce9849feb7cf4f3e4b872 Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork