Busted by the New York Times

The NY Times has a long article about R. Yechiel Eckstein with a lot of interesting information on his history and the extent of his operations.

However, much to his chagrin, the following happened in front of a NY Times reporter:

The newest staff member at the meeting was Sandy Rios, who was hired a couple of days earlier as vice president for programming...

Eckstein invited me to ask Bauer a few questions.

''A lot of Jews think Christian support for Israel is a trick,'' I suggested. ''They hear 'evangelical' and think 'anti-Semite.' What do you say to them?''

''There's a lot of history we'd like to do over,'' Bauer said smoothly, ''but this is a new era. Today, Jews are safer living in countries where Christianity is vibrant than they are anyplace else.''

''What about the Armageddon scenario?'' As Bauer knows, a great many Jews believe that evangelicals want to gather Jews in Israel to bring on the ''End of Days,'' a Book of Revelation big bang that includes the return of Jesus and a Jewish mass conversion.

Bauer dismissed this as the "odd belief" of an insignificant minority. "Most evangelicals support Israel for national-security reasons,'' he said. ''After 9/11 there is a strong interest in foreign affairs, and we have a tendency to identify Israel as good guys."...

Throughout this conversation, Rios was clearly eager to join in. And as soon as there was a pause in the discussion, she did. ''You know,'' she said, ''the truth is, Christians do want to convert Jews.''

Eckstein and Mamo exchanged glances. ''Not by some bait-and-switch trick,'' she said. ''But we believe it's part of God's plan.'' Eckstein winced the way he had when Pastor Munsey called him a born-again Christian.

Busted! Rios was fired shortly thereafter because, clearly, some things are better left unsaid.