SWING OR SHTETL?:

A new swing vote: Alliance of Jews & Evangelicals could tip the election (Zev Chafets, March 17, 2004, NY Daily News)

[Yechiel] Eckstein is an unorthodox Orthodox rabbi from Chicago who recently moved to Israel. He wears a baseball hat for a skull cap, and he looks more like an ex-jock than a practicing clergyman. His congregation isn't what you'd expect, either. He is the founder and leader of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, a group linked to 20,000 Evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

Eckstein raises money from Christians and gives it to Jews. Last year alone, he took in around $40 million. Most of it was disbursed in the Holy Land. That's enough to make the Fellowship of Christians and Jews Israel's biggest philanthropic foundation - and Eckstein a very influential figure in his new country.

The rabbi's real power base, though, is still the United States. A close associate of Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer and Tom DeLay, Eckstein is at the epicenter of the rapidly developing Jewish-Evangelical political connection.

The fellowship is officially nonpartisan, but there is no question that the partnership Eckstein is building will help the Republicans this year and beyond. For that reason, it is highly controversial in the Jewish establishment. Historically, American Jews have distrusted and disliked Evangelical Christians. Since FDR, they have voted overwhelmingly Democratic in every national election except 1980, when upward of a third cast ballots for Ronald Reagan over the born-again Jimmy Carter.

George W. Bush is born-again, too, but he also is the most pro-Israel President in history. Eckstein believes President Bush will get a significant Jewish vote, perhaps enough to make a difference in electoral battleground states like Illinois, Pennsylvania and, especially, Florida.

The tough part is prying the folks in Florida away from Pat Buchanan.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 18, 2004 5:33 PM