In October 2025, more than 1.5 million Israeli flags were planted across the United States. They appeared on church lawns, at synagogues, on college campuses, and in community gathering spaces.
Together, they created one of the largest public displays of support for Israel since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks.
At each location, participants planted 1,200 small flags, each of which represented one of the 1,200 people killed during the attacks. What started as a memorial effort just one year earlier has quickly grown into an international movement, turning the numbers seen in news reports into something people can see with their own eyes.
Those displays were part of the second annual Flags of Fellowship campaign organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, (IFCJ).
As IFCJ and its leader, Yael Eckstein, prepare for the third annual Flags of Fellowship campaign in 2026, the organization is building on two years of growth while continuing its broader mission of supporting Israel, strengthening Jewish-Christian relations, and providing humanitarian aid to those in need.
From the First Flags to an International Campaign
In 2024, more than 220 churches, synagogues, and universities across the United States and Canada participated in the inaugural Flags of Fellowship campaign.
When IFCJ announced plans for the second annual campaign in July 2025, the organization set a much larger goal. Leaders hoped to reach 1,000 participating locations, including churches, synagogues, universities, and other organizations.
Nearly 600 churches, universities, and synagogues had already signed on by the time the campaign was announced. Participation was free, and IFCJ provided materials needed for each display.
The second annual campaign ran from October 2 through October 8, 2025. By that point, participation had grown to more than 1,300 churches, synagogues, and universities across all 50 U.S. states, Canada, and 10 other countries worldwide — well beyond IFCJ’s original goal.
One of the first displays appeared in Israel at Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community in the Gaza envelope that was heavily affected during the October 7 attacks. Nearly one-quarter of its residents were killed or taken captive by Hamas.
There, the first 1,200 flags were placed in a ceremony before similar displays appeared at churches, synagogues, universities and organizations worldwide.
In the United States, World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee hosted the flagship gathering on October 5, 2025. Led by Pastor Allen Jackson, the church has a congregation of 10,000 pro-Israel activists.
By the end of the 2025 campaign, more than 1.5 million Israeli flags had been planted.
The Organization Behind the Movement
The success of Flags of Fellowship is closely connected to the work IFCJ has been doing for more than 40 years.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1983 by Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. His vision was to build stronger relationships between Christians and Jews while creating practical support for Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
At the time, cooperation between the two faith communities was not as common as it is today. Rabbi Eckstein believed Christians and Jews could come together around shared values and a shared commitment to helping people in need.
Over time, that vision grew into one of the largest organizations focused on Christian-Jewish relations and support for Israel.
Today, IFCJ has offices in Jerusalem, Chicago, Toronto, and Seoul.In recent years, over $303 million has been donated annually, primarily from Christian supporters, and since its founding 3.1 million people in the U.S. and around the world have supported Israel and the Jewish people through The Fellowship.
Since its founding, $4.4 billion has been raised to help Israel and the Jewish people. Its work has provided basic needs and assistance in over 20 countries.
The same mission that inspired Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein still drives the organization today, with campaigns like Flags of Fellowship reflecting that ongoing work.
Turning Compassion Into Action
The flags may be the most visible part of the Flags of Fellowship campaign, but they are only one piece of IFCJ’s work.
Throughout the year, the organization provides humanitarian aid to elderly people, Holocaust survivors, struggling families, children, victims of terror, immigrants, soldiers, and others facing hardship in Israel and Jewish communities around the world.
Much of that aid begins with basic needs. Food packages, food vouchers, meals-on-wheels, medical assistance, winter heating help, emergency aid, school supplies, and support for soup kitchens are all part of IFCJ’s poverty relief work.
The organization also funds programs designed to help families become more stable and self-sufficient.
For elderly people and Holocaust survivors in Israel and the former Soviet Union, in 2025 IFCJ provided emergency and basic needs support to 142,000 elderly Jews and Holocaust survivors. That includes food, medicine, medical services, heating help, day centers, clubs, and other forms of care.
About 795,000 families, children in need, orphans, and others also receive assistance through food, clothing, education, job training, scholarships, and programs for at-risk children and youth. In Israel, minority communities also receive aid, including Christians, Druze, and Bedouin.
Security remains another major part of IFCJ’s mission amidst ongoing conflict. Support goes to first responders, hospitals, emergency preparedness efforts, soldiers, and terror victims and their families. Altogether, the organization’s security-related emergency work reaches more than 800,000 people.
Supporting aliyah is central to IFCJ’s work as well. Since the organization’s founding, more than 780,000 Jews have received help immigrating to Israel and beginning new lives there. Immigration and resettlement support also helped more than 6,000 Jews make aliyah in 2025 and typically helps Jews from 30 countries each year, including immigrants from the former Soviet Union, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East.
In the two years following the horrific terror attacks of October 7, 2023, The Fellowship committed $300 million in aid to support the ongoing emergency needs in Israel and to continue to provide assistance in our core program areas – everything from prepacked emergency food, water, equipment for first responders and security personnel, to aliyah support of olim and other needy populations impacted by the war and ongoing conflict.
In 2025, The Fellowship helped more than 2 million people.
Continuing a Family Legacy of Fellowship
Today, Yael Eckstein leads the organization her father founded more than four decades ago. As President and Global CEO of IFCJ, she oversees the organization’s humanitarian programs and serves as its international spokesperson.
Before taking on that role, she served in several leadership positions at IFCJ, including Director of Program Development and Ministry Outreach, Senior Vice President, and Global Executive Vice President.
Her public work has made her one of the most influential voices on Israel, faith, and interfaith relations. She is the author of three books, and her radio ministry programs are broadcast on nearly 1,000 stations around the world.
In 2021, she launched the podcast “Nourish Your Biblical Roots,” where she discusses Christian-Jewish relations and Israel’s place on the world stage. Some of her guests have included Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Michele Bachmann, Elisha Wiesel, Dr. Alveda King, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon, and Mike Huckabee.
Her leadership has earned recognition from several Jewish and nonprofit organizations. The Jerusalem Post named her its 2023 Humanitarian of the Year, and The Jaffa Institute named her its 2024 Woman of the Year.
As a leader of one of the world’s largest religious charitable organizations, questions about “Yael Eckstein salary” are not uncommon. IFCJ reviews often highlight the organization’s transparency, noting that it publishes annual financial reports for donors and the general public.
IFCJ is fully accredited with the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, has a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, and holds a Platinum Seal of Transparency from Candid. It has also been a four-time honoree on Forbes’ list of America’s Top 100 U.S. Charities, with 76 cents of every dollar raised going toward humanitarian care, lifesaving aid, ministry and education outreach, and other work tied to its mission.
Looking Ahead to the Third Annual Campaign
As The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews prepares for the third annual Flags of Fellowship campaign in 2026, it is working from a stronger foundation than it had just two years earlier. What began with 220 participants has grown into more than 1,300, with each year building on the last.
Still, the purpose is not expansion for its own sake. It is about remembrance, solidarity, and taking action.
A single flag may seem small on its own, but when well over a million are planted in rows across churches, synagogues, universities, and community spaces, the message becomes hard to miss.
Together, they are a reminder that the lives lost on October 7 have not been forgotten, and the communities still living with the impact of that day are not alone.
As Yael Eckstein leads IFCJ into the last half of 2026 and beyond, Flags of Fellowship remains just one visible expression of a much larger mission: standing with Israel and the Jewish people when support is needed most.
