Yael Eckstein – salary and economic crisis in Israel and how IFCJ is helping every day
After years of ongoing conflict and war, Israel’s citizens are struggling under the weight of wartime policy, rising poverty rates, and crushing housing and income crises. Ongoing regional and national security concerns are demanding the attention of Israel’s government, which takes resources and attention away from the sky-high poverty rates experienced by broad swathes of the nation’s civilian population. Loss of income, rising cost of living, and insecurity around food and electricity access are all growing struggles, and the people are in desperate need of assistance.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, led by President and Global CEO Yael Eckstein, is working diligently to provide these suffering people with a lifeline. Founded in 1983, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is the world’s leading interfaith nonprofit organization, building bridges between the two faiths and providing humanitarian care, financial support, and lifesaving aid to Jewish people worldwide. In Israel’s current time of struggle and crisis, IFCJ is stepping into the gap and rendering aid to vulnerable families in need.
The cost of war and conflict
Israel’s ongoing war and regional conflicts are having a cumulatively devastating effect on the country’s economy, and thus its citizenry. These costs range from direct costs like the combined costs of equipment, ammunition, and the salaries of nearly 300,000 recalled reservists (and expanded conscription), to indirect costs including plunging imports and exports, slowing real estate investment and business GDP, and declining employment rates and wages. The conflict is proving costly.
In the early days of the current conflict, Israel’s Ministry of Finance reported that the combined cost of each day of war—equipment, ammunition, salaries, and so on—could be as high as NIS one billion, all before considering the lost economic output of the recalled reservists. Both the Bank of Israel and the Ministry of Finance estimate the financial cost of the war to exceed NIS 300 billion already. These expenditures come at a cost, both to the nation’s government and its people.
High-level statistics are demonstrably bleak. From 2024 to 2025, Israeli exports declined 2.3%, following a prior 8.1% reduction in 2023-2024. Imports rose 5.2%, but that wasn’t enough to make up for the deficit from the 9.8% drop the previous year. The Bank of Israel has projected that the prolonged conflict could reduce GDP growth by 1-1.5 percentage points annually, after 2024’s projected 3% growth fell to only 1.5%. These high-level projections and statistics are disquieting, but only tell some of the story.
Poverty rising, wages falling
Based on a report published in December of 2024 by the Israeli nonprofit Latet, as much as one-quarter of the overall Israeli population—over 3 million citizens, including almost 40% of Israeli children—are suffering poverty conditions or are on the verge of poverty. This is supported further by Israel’s National Insurance Institute’s 2024 Poverty Report, which states that more than 20% of the population lives below the poverty line. From food insecurity to energy scarcity to decaying housing solutions, and more, Israel’s citizens are suffering at home amidst the regional wars and conflicts. Among civilians receiving aid from various charities and partner NGOs, Latet’s report included, but was not limited to, the following discoveries:
- 8% of aid recipient households are debt-burdened, compared to 26.9% of the general population
- 65% of aid recipients report that their financial situation had worsened in the past year.
- 5% of aid recipients couldn’t afford essential home repairs.
- 8% of aid recipients experience energy scarcity, with 33.7% experiencing severe energy scarcity, and 22.1% were cut off from electricity due to financial hardships in the last year.
- 1% of families live in nutritional insecurity, including 34.1% of children living in Israel.
- 8% of aid recipients were forced to forgo medication or necessary medical care in the past year.
- 1% of aid recipients reported a decline or significant decline in their health since the war, compared to 17.6% of the general population.
- 83% of working aid recipients are employed at an hourly or daily wage, and 38.8% don’t work a set number of hours or days.
- Of aid recipients, only 23.2% believe that their financial situation will improve sufficiently to alleviate economic hardship within the next ten years.
The data is clear: Israel’s people are suffering, and their situation is only getting worse. From stagnant wages to surging housing and food costs, to unemployment spiking as much as 10% in conflict periods, it’s getting harder and harder to live a stable, healthy life. The housing crisis, in particular, is of concern. It may be more than a consequence of a battered economy; it may be a threat to Israel’s public health, according to Jordan Attal and Prof. Yehuda Neumark of Hebrew University.
Their recently published integrative study in the Israel Journal of Health Policy Research reports that the nation’s chronic underinvestment in affordable, quality housing will lead to dangerous health outcomes for citizens. Many structures are decades out of date and lack adequate insulation, safe rooms, ventilation, and sanitation—all required by Israeli law. The writers conclude that, even amidst the war, solving these problems is “a moral imperative in a democratic society.”
Latet’s perspective on Israeli poverty is bleak. In it, the nonprofit’s President and Founder, Gilles Darmon, states: “…the state budget has been generating injustice when it demands, relatively speaking, a greater effort from the less privileged strata than from the more affluent ones. While the need to reallocate resources to finance the war effort may be nonnegotiable, in practice, it disproportionally harms the most vulnerable, creating a deeply difficult situation to accept.”
A lifeline for relief
“We answer the biblical call to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and provide shelter to the poor (Isaiah 58:7) through on-the-ground, lifesaving care, food, and support for impoverished Jews, the elderly, and Holocaust survivors.” — International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
Given the depth and breadth of these economic stressors and financial impoverishment, any and all assistance that can be rendered to Israeli citizens is critical. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is working hard to fill that gap and serve as a lifeline for crucial humanitarian and financial aid. IFCJ receives donations from all over the world and utilizes its more than $250 million in annual donations to provide support on a similarly global scale, giving aid to Jews both in Israel and abroad. Global CEO and President Yael Eckstein has been working quickly to provide life-saving aid to those suffering from poverty.
IFCJ’s efforts to alleviate poverty result in, on average, 2 million people clothed, fed, and cared for each year. This poverty assistance and aid takes the form of basic supplies, clothing, food packages and vouchers, hot meals and soup kitchens, and more. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, also, through its direct aid programs, provides blankets, medicines, and heat to disadvantaged citizens in Israel. These programs are why fully 76% of every donation to IFCJ is dedicated to humanitarian aid, with 63% of that subtotal dedicated to providing food, shelter, and aid to Jews in need. They also provide professional training and scholarships to give affected individuals a better chance in the battered job market.
The Fellowship can do this good work on both personal and global scales due to the flow of good-hearted donations applied and managed by transparent and effective leadership. Like any effective nonprofit, IFCJ publicly discloses all leadership and executive pay, including Yael Eckstein’s salary, and consistently remains in line with the benchmarks of effective large nonprofits. The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has put supporters’ donations to work aiding millions of people, and is working hard to help more every day.