(compelling music)
- Trauma from social distancingand stay-at-home orders
are doubly hard on holocaust survivors.
It causes hardship andbrings back painful memories.
What a tragedy it would be for someone
to survive the holocaustonly to die of the virus.
So says one Jewish leader,
and she's doing her best to prevent that.
Take a look.
- [Reporter] Following in the footsteps
of her beloved father,Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein,
Yael Eckstein is the President
of the International Fellowshipof Christians and Jews.
Her parents made sure theirthree daughters understood
and grew in their Jewish faith
by welcoming questionsand keeping the traditions
Jews have honored for millennia.
Yael's latest book,"Generation to Generation,"
celebrates and explainshow to pass down the faith
and values of Jewish and Christians alike.
- Welcome back to The 700 Club.
Yael Eckstein, it's wonderfulto have you with us.
- Thank you so much, it'sgreat to be with you.
- How is Israel copingwith the coronavirus?
- Well, I think Israel'sin a unique situation
because we're used to dealing with reality
in times of crisis.
Normally it's war and rockets,and today it's corona.
But I think that Israel isin a relatively good place
regarding the COVID death numbers
because we've taken very early measures.
Before we even saw whatcould possibly happen,
we knew that this was athreat and the government
took very harsh measures early on
to make sure that everyone's safe.
- Your dad had such a heartfor holocaust survivors,
and I know you've carriedthat on in your own work.
What is your organization doing to help?
- Well, the InternationalFellowship of Christians
and Jews is focused onhelping the elderly,
the holocaust survivors,the new immigrants
that we bring from thebiblical land of the north,
from the former SovietUnion and Russia to Israel,
that we help them on an ongoing basis.
As soon as we saw that when Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu very early on ordered
the stay-at-home orders, we realized
that it was these elderly that would need
more help than ever, soimmediately we established
a $5 million COVID emergency fund
where we've brought over30,000 elderly food boxes
on an ongoing basis.
We have actually soldierspacking these food boxes,
because the logistics ofgetting people together
to volunteer to pack thefood boxes is difficult
when more than 10 peoplecan't be together.
So we're doing everything to reach out
to the holocaust survivorsby phone, with food,
helping the hospitals in Israel
with emergency equipment that will be used
in the future during war as well.
And everything we do, wetell the people of Israel,
"This is because ofChristians who love you
"that it was made possible."
- Let's talk about your book a little bit,
because I really loved it.- Thank you.
- "Generation toGeneration," the subtitle,
"passing on a legacy offaith to our children."
What it is about the Jewish faith
that intrinsically justseems to do this so well?
- Well, I don't thinkthere's any other people,
when we read the bible and we read about
all the different nationsthat were around back then,
I don't think there are any of them
that are still around today, and Israel,
the people of Israel, the Jewish people
who were exiled from theirland for over 2,000 years,
I think it's definitelysomething spiritual.
If God says in the biblethese are the chosen nation
that will return eventually to Israel
on the shoulders of the Gentiles,
that one day there'll be world peace
and beautiful times and theancient biblical language
will be renewed on the tongueof the people of Israel
and children will dance in the street,
God had to keep us alive.
So I think there's definitelysomething spiritual there
that God needed us around for some reason,
wanted us around.
But I think it's alsothat there are traditions
from the bible, thetraditions that Jesus kept.
We just celebrated Passover, that we know
the last supper thatJesus was eating matzah,
the unleavened bread.
So there are a lot of biblical traditions
that the Jewish people have held onto
through this exile which have enabled us
to hold on to our faith and pass it on
to the next generation.
So this modern time, sorry.
- I just wanna say yourbook covers eight Jewish
holy days and then containscorresponding lessons
from the New Testament,which is so helpful to us
in understanding as we'regrafted into the vine,
we believe, what ourcelebration ought to be
that would be on the same line as yours
as a Jewish woman, giveus an example of that.
- Well, it's exactly what you say,
the rich olive tree of Israel,that you are the branches.
And so just as thebranches need the roots,
the roots need the branches.
We see that today now more than ever
as Christians areIsrael's greatest friends
and the Jewish peopleneed the love and support
and encouragement and prayerof Christians so much,
and also how Christians are going back
to their biblical rootslargely by learning
from the Jewish tradition.
So it's something assimple, you could say,
as the Sabbath.
Right now I call it yom shekulo Shabbat,
we're in a time whereevery day is the Sabbath,
it feels like, when we're home every day
and we can't really go anywhere
and everything is closedand we're focused just
on the most importantthings of being in our home,
being with our family, being in prayer,
focusing on how we can better the world,
focusing on intention and whatwe shouldn't take for granted
but really going back tothis place of simplicity.
One of the rabbis saidmore than the Jewish people
have kept the Sabbath,
the Sabbath has kept the Jewish people.
And so I think that that'sone example that Christians,
I often hear them say that Christians
have lost the meaning of the Sabbath.
We have the word, you could call Sunday
the Christian Sabbath,but the meaning behind it,
the intention behind it,and these biblical holidays
are not manmade holiday.
They were given to usbecause they are good for us.
Because they give usmeaning and it helps us find
not only God but ithelps us find ourselves.
- Do you have a favorite,a favorite holiday
that you celebrate?
- Oh, that's a hard one.
I really look at, yeah, it'slike choosing a favorite child.
Each one of them is different,
but you love them all the same.
Each holiday reallygives me different tools,
that when I get to Rosh Hashanah,
the beginning of theyear, I feel like I went
through this system ofgetting all the tools
that I needed throughout theyear from each of the holidays.
We have Tisha B'Av whenboth temples were destroyed,
that God says, "Okay,I want you to be happy,
"I want you to rejoice,but it's okay to be sad,
"it's okay to mournabout the right things.
"Today is the day of mourning."
And you know what, it's importantto mourn sometimes also.
And then we have Hanukkahwhere we celebrate miracles
and remember that miraclescan and do happen today.
We just finished Passover,the holiday of redemption
where I realize what am I slaves to?
What can I be redeemed from God?
What are those prayersthat I wanna pray for
that I'll be redeemed fromGod in my own life today
that I really feel likeit's a culmination of
all the holidays togetherthat give me different tools
to be able to rejoice andpraise and worship God
in the perfect way.
- We are running out oftime, but I wanna be sure
to tell folks againthe name of the book is
"Generation to Generation,passing the legacy
"of our faith to our children."
It's rich in what it shares,I highly recommend it.
Yael, thank you so much,wonderful to have you with us.
- Thank you so much.- Blessings to you.
