'Good Jewish boy' or chief 'infiltrator'? NJ man spent years as fake rabbi in Israel, groups say

Deena Yellin
NorthJersey.com

A self-professed "good Jewish boy from New Jersey," Rabbi Michael Elkohen had come a long way.

In the ultra-Orthodox enclave in Jerusalem where Elkohen now lives, he was often called on to perform marriages, circumcisions and other sacred Jewish rituals. He was even hired to write Torah scrolls, handwritten copies of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, in a task typically reserved for the most devout and highly trained scribes. 

But for 15 years, Elkohen was apparently living a lie. The father of five with the black hat, beard and side curls was fluent in Judaic texts and traditions but living a double life: Born Michael Elk in Salem County, he was actually a Christian missionary sent to the Holy Land to convert Jews, according to two anti-missionary groups whose accusations have captivated Israelis in recent days. 

Elk's tale has grabbed headlines across the Jewish state, where religious leaders see a growing trend of covert missionary work by evangelical Christians. 

Rabbi Michael Elkohen in an interview recorded for Morningstar Ministries.

Though missionizing is technically permitted in Israel, there are limits, including a ban on preaching to children or offering any material benefits in the course of religious conversion. Elk could be charged with falsifying his identity, immigration fraud, practicing circumcision illegally and collecting charity under false pretenses, according to watchdog groups tracking his case.

It's not clear how many religious rituals he has performed since moving to Israel in 2006, but some may have to be reevaluated, and any Torah scrolls he wrote burned, said Rabbi Tovia Singer, director of Outreach Judaism, a counter-missionary group in Jerusalem. 

Elk "was a clearinghouse for missionary activity," Singer said in an interview. "He was able to guide missionaries on where to go in Israel. The idea of these messianic groups is to blur distinctions in order to lure Jews who would otherwise resist the Christian message."

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Elk, 42, did not respond to messages seeking comment from NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. But in a video aired by Jerusalem's Channel 13 news station, he dismissed the allegations as "a lie."

“I was born Jewish,” he said, according to a translation in The Guardian newspaper in Britain. He worked as a missionary seven or eight years ago but has since “repented," he said.

Singer's group and another tracking missionary activity, Beyneynu, said they had been tracking Elk for years. But the case came to a head in recent days after the ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim reported that Elk's 13-year-old daughter had told a schoolmate that Jesus “accepts everyone, even if they are wrong." Attempts to convert minors in Israel are illegal unless a parent's consent is obtained. 

The revelations have also raised questions about Elk's late wife, Amanda, who claimed to be the daughter of Holocaust survivors and died of cancer in February. Her ties to the faith also appear to have been faked, meaning her Orthodox funeral in a Jewish cemetery would defy religious law. 

New Jersey roots

Michael and Amanda Elk emigrated to Israel using forged documents and with the help of South Carolina-based Morningstar Missions, according to Beyneynu and Outreach Judaism. 

But Elk's father, William, was actually a lifelong Salem County resident and member of the Friendship Mennonite Church in Carneys Point, according to an obituary published in 2006. His mother, Patricia Singer Baric, divorced Elk's father but still lives in Carneys Point. She did not return calls seeking comment. 

Elk's path to missionary work isn't completely clear, but he appears to have served as a minister for a time in Olympia, Washington, according to Alan Brill, a professor of Jewish-Christian Studies at Seton Hall University. He published an online interview with Elk in 2012. 

By that point, Elk went by the name Elkohen and appeared to be a well-versed Jewish scholar, said Brill, himself an ordained rabbi. In the interview, Elk described himself as a "good Jewish boy from New Jersey" who had grown up in a secular Jewish home but "fell in love" with Orthodox Judaism while attending Temple University in Philadelphia, according to Brill's account.  

Officials at Temple said they had no record of Elk attending, but he did graduate from Eastern University, a nearby Christian college, according to officials at that school. 

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Elk revealed on his own blog that he had endured a "downward spiral" in his life, including a failed marriage and heavy drinking, before becoming religious and moving to Israel. Brill, for one, was convinced: Elk exhibited a deep knowledge of kabbalistic Judaism, a brand of Jewish mysticism, the professor said last week. 

"He put on a good act," Brill said. "He had an insider's understanding of the current personalities and tensions between the various yeshivot," or schools of Jewish thought.

Once in Israel, Elk began taking classes at ATOS Jiu Jitsu, a martial-arts studio in Jerusalem known for ties to Messianic Judaism, whose adherents consider themselves Jews who accept Christ as their savior. Elk quickly rose through the ranks and became an instructor, though he wasn't particularly adept at the sport, according to a student there, who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

Amanda Bradley, who moved to Israel from London and became close friends with Amanda Elkohen, said the couple portrayed themselves as devoted Jews. Michael explained gaps in his Judaic knowledge by saying he grew up in a non-religious family and only later became Orthodox.

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Michael Elk eventually ran a yeshiva for Messianic Jews and sought to raise his prominence in the Jewish community, said Beyneynu founder Shannon Nuszen. His five children attended ultra-Orthodox schools, and Elk worked as a scribe, rabbi and mohel, performing circumcisions. He claimed to be a "kohen," a descendant of Aaron, the biblical high priest.  

All the while, he was working to coordinate missionary work in Israel, according to the watchdog groups. While living as a rabbi, Elk authored a book and anonymous blog posts about his work as an undercover evangelist, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

'Rabbi Michael'

In a 2011 video interview recorded for Morningstar Ministries, Elk, dressed in ultra-Orthodox garb and appearing as "Rabbi Michael," prays for Jesus to "stir the Jewish people to jealousy" and "bring them back to you once again." 

Confronted in 2014, Elk confessed to working as a missionary and to converting Jews to Christianity but promised to stop, Nuszen said. But he eventually relocated his family to Jerusalem's French Hill neighborhood and quietly continued his efforts, she said. 

"He's the leader of this new variety of infiltrators who portray themselves perfectly as very religious Jews," Nuszen said. "He teaches them everything from how to pronounce things correctly, how to dress, to the intricacies of Jewish law .... Michael has students and online followers all over." 

She estimates that there are about 30,000 missionaries in Israel, 300 organizations focused on evangelizing Jews and 200 websites dedicated to converting them.

Elk authored a book under the pseudonym "Orthodox Jewish Rabbi" for Morningstar Ministries, based in Fort Mill, South Carolina. In an interview, the group's founder, Rick Joyner, recalled Elk attending Morningstar conferences and praised his "remarkable" religious knowledge. 

"When people hear the word 'missionary,' they often think it means someone who is trying to convert them to Christianity, but that was not Michael's intent," Joyner said. "He was in Israel to help and to learn." 

Joyner has been in touch with Elk and said he was taking the controversy "pretty well." "The e-mails I got sounded upbeat," Joyner said.

Still, he predicts Elk will leave Israel because "it's too dangerous for him to stay there." 

Joyner denied sending Elk to Israel as a missionary, saying the two met after the New Jersey man moved to the Middle East. In a separate interview, the head of the "missions arm" of Morningstar grew angry when a reporter asked about the group's connections to Elk, calling it a "private" matter. 

Clandestine work

On its website, Christ's Mandate for Missions said its missionaries are often sent undercover to Israel. President Jorge Parrott, in an interview, said clandestine work is often necessary to protect the privacy of missionaries and ensure their families' safety.

In a Facebook post in 2019, Amanda Elk appeals to friends to help fund an upcoming trip and steers them to an online donation portal run by CMM, according to screenshots provided by Beyneynu, the watchdog group. In another post from February, Anna Marie Parrott, Jorge's wife, mourns Amanda's death.

The revelations have dismayed friends and neighbors of Elk's. 

Amanda Elk "seemed to be extremely knowledgeable about Judaism. Whenever a question came up about Jewish law, she would answer it," said Leah Aharoni, a business consultant who grew up in New York City, attended high school in Paramus and later moved to Israel.

The two women first met through social media and later became fast friends. "She was very sweet. She was easygoing and friendly," Aharoni said. 

"After she got sick, people in the community spent time with her in the hospital. Friends raised over $15,000 for her medical treatment and more for groceries for her family. Everyone who knew her was devastated when she died," Aharoni said.

In the end, anyone who thought they were friends with the couple now feels betrayed, she said: "It was all just a con act." 

The controversy is likely to set back efforts to build bridges among Jews and Christians in Israel, said Jonathan Feldstein, a former Teaneck resident whose Jerusalem-based Genesis 123 Foundation focuses on such work.

 “The deceit of a Christian family living literally in disguise as Orthodox Jews will only serve to highlight the long and sadly very bad history of Christians persecuting and forcefully converting Jews," he said.

Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: yellin@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @deenayellin