Philanthropist rabbi’s sudden death

YECHIEL ECKSTEIN, a rabbi who raised millions in funding for Israel from Christian evangelists in the United States, died suddenly on Wednesday aged 67.

He founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews in 1983 to support social causes in Israel and the wider Jewish world. The organisation attracts $140 million in contributions and grants every year.

“He spoke publicly at my son’s Bar Mitzvah just two nights ago,” US Orthodox rabbi Shmuley Boteach said on Twitter. “How can this be? He did incalculable good.”