The Chernoff Family

There are few multi-generational families within the Messianic movement, as the movement primarily gained strength in the 1960 and 70's. One of the few exceptions to this is the Chernoff family.

Martin Chernoff was the scion of the Chernoff family. Though born Jewish, he converted to Christianity and became a Pentecostal preacher. He worked for the American Association for Jewish Evangelism. In the 1950's he received money from a Baptist organization to create a Messianic congregation in Cincinatti, Beth Messiah, which is still in existence today. One of Martin Chernoff's most lasting changes was pushing the name change of the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America to the more Jewish-sounding Messianic Jewish Alliance of America (MJAA). Martin invested most of his lifetime in attempts to convert Jews to Christianity.

Martin's wife, Yohanna, is not Jewish. Since she is not Jewish, their two children, David and Joel, are by Jewish law not Jewish. This, of course, does not stop David and Joel from declaring themselves to be Jewish. Both of them have had stints in charge of the MJAA and Joel Chernoff is the President of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance. David Chernoff has his own congregation, Beth Yeshua, in Philadelphia. David calls himself a "rabbi" and refers to his upbringing as that of a "rk" or "rabbi's kid." This is a fantastical claim since he is not Jewish and neither he, his brother or his father have ever had a real rabbinical degree. In fact, Beth Yeshua started as a break-off from another Messianic congregation, Avodat Yisrael. Avodat Yisrael is a church plant of the Presbyterian church and was initially called the First Hebrew Christian Church of Philadelphia.

Taken as a whole, the Chernoff family have been Christian missionaries to the Jewish people for a number of generations. They willing to call themselves rabbis and in the case of the children, call themselves Jews, despite lacking rabbinical or Jewish credentials.