Ultra-Orthodox rabbi outed as Christian missionary

Christian missionary in Israel posing as ultra-Orthodox rabbi conducted weddings and oversaw conversions to Judaism while secretly performing baptisms and working to convert Jews to Christianity.

By World Israel News Staff

A man posing as an ultra-Orthodox rabbi in Israel has been outed as a Christian missionary involved in actively evangelizing among local Jews, a watchdog group has reported.

On Tuesday, the Yad L’Achim organization, which tracks missionary activity in Israel, issued a statement revealing that for years, a man living under the name Ariel Katzenberg has been presenting himself as being a member of the ultra-Orthodox community and acting as a rabbi while leading a double life as a Christian missionary.

According to information gathered by Yad L’Achim, Katzenberg began posing as a rabbi in the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak near Tel Aviv before moving to the town of Harish, followed by Migdal and other communities in northern Israel.

In his guise as a rabbi, Katzenberg performed weddings and conversions to Judaism and gave Torah lectures.

However, activists from Yad L’Achim acquired footage of Katzenberg performing baptisms and converting Jews to Christianity.

The group accuses Katzenberg of submitting forged documents to rabbinical courts to bolster his false claims of being an ordained rabbi.

Katzenberg has not only used his position to missionize Jews in Israel, but also to bilk tourists attempting to prove their Jewishness to Israeli authorities.

According to Yad L’Achim, Katzenberg routinely offers foreigners assistance in obtaining documents attesting to their supposed conversion or officially recognizing their Judaism.

In exchange for tens of thousands of shekels, he has manufactured documents bearing forged seals from well-known courts and even claimed that the foreigners had undergone official conversions in Israel.

Over the past few months, Katzenberg has managed to raise his stature within the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, having secured meetings with prominent rabbis and ultra-Orthodox officials who were unaware of his missionary activities.

“We demonstrated to the courts that the documents had been forged, and they were shocked,” says Rabbi Shimon Abergel, field coordinator for Yad L’Achim’s counter-missionary department.

“The technique of impersonation and deception is well-known and typical among missionaries. The con artist in this case went to great lengths to hunt down innocent victims and convert them to their religion. We will continue to pursue the missionaries wherever they are, by all legitimate means, and stymie their efforts to lead Jews astray.”