From the Congo Rainforest to a Life of Torah: Amit Eliyahu’s Extraordinary Journey

If Amit Eliyahu were not sitting across from us, pointing to photographs documenting every stage of his journey, it would be easy to assume that he simply had the makings of a talented novelist, perhaps even an author of bestselling fiction. But his story is entirely true, and the photographs prove that reality can sometimes surpass even the wildest imagination.

“I grew up in a completely secular home in Kiryat Haim,” he says, returning to the beginning of his story. “There was no talk of Judaism in our home. But when I was about nineteen, an uncle of mine became religious. He was very close to me. At first I was angry that he had distanced himself from us, but eventually I became curious and began asking him questions. He told me, ‘You have so many questions, and I don’t know how to answer all of them. Go to a lecture and see if you can find some answers.’ That is how I began attending various lectures about Judaism.”

Amit did not attend those lectures alone. Two close friends were also interested and joined him. “We all understood very quickly that we had found the truth,” he says. “But we were young, and changing ourselves was difficult, so it took time. One friend became religious after the army, the other made the change at twenty-five, and for me it took longer than both of them.”

For Amit, it was not merely a matter of time. His path would take him on an extraordinary journey to some of the most remote places on earth.

Chapter One: Welcome to Congo

After completing his army service, Amit began studying at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During that period, however, several crises struck at once.

“I was angry at the whole world,” he recalls. “I couldn’t find my place, and I wasn’t pleasant to myself or to the people around me. I was angry at reality and at all the terrible things I saw. Eventually I decided that there was no point in continuing to live that way. I wanted to go to the most distant place I could possibly reach, somewhere with no civilization at all, where I could connect as deeply as possible with nature. That was when I decided to go to Africa.”

Africa is enormous. Where exactly did you want to go?

“I didn’t want to simply wander around Africa. I wanted the most remote, isolated, uninhabited place I could find. I decided to reach the rainforests of Congo.”

Congo, Amit explains, is an enormous country rich in natural resources and plagued by civil wars and tribal conflicts. Tourism was virtually nonexistent, with foreigners generally entering only for business.

So how did you manage to get in?

“It was extremely complicated,” Amit replies. “I could write an entire book just about that part. It took me about a month to arrange meetings with consuls and representatives who helped organize my entry into Congo through Zambia. It even involved bribes under the table and time in a Zambian prison. Eventually I got permission, boarded a plane and landed in the capital. But when I arrived, I discovered that the authorities still had no intention of letting me in. Even the visa I had obtained didn’t help. Finally, they agreed to let me enter for just one week.”

The moment he left the airport, he was stunned.

“Nothing I had read prepared me for what I saw. Congo was another world, something almost impossible to describe. Millions of people crowded the streets, there was mud everywhere, shouting everywhere. It was complete chaos.”

Where did you go from there?

Amit had heard that, remarkably, Congo had a long-established Chabad House dating back to 1970, and he wanted to find it. The address he had, however, was outdated.

“Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a white man passing by and thought perhaps he was Jewish, maybe even Israeli. He turned out to be Greek, but we immediately felt a connection because we were both from Mediterranean countries. He saw that I was lost and offered me a place to stay. The next day he connected me with someone who managed to arrange a visa for several months, in exchange for a bribe, of course.”

Then the man asked Amit what else he hoped to do.

“I told him I was looking for a local person who could accompany me into the rainforest. He practically shouted, ‘The rainforest? Do you understand that you’re going to die?’ But I wasn’t frightened. I told him, ‘I believe people are basically good. Why would they hurt me?’”

It ultimately took six weeks to find a local man willing to accompany him into the rainforest. The danger was simply that great.

Chapter Two: Deep in the Rainforest

A month later, Amit was deep inside one of the world’s most dangerous rainforests.

“It came after long days without food, injuries and illnesses, and hundreds of kilometers of walking. For days at a time, you couldn’t even see the sky because vegetation surrounded you completely. My ultimate goal was to reach the Pygmy tribe, which was the oldest and most fascinating tribe in the region, although we encountered other tribes along the way.”

The risks were enormous.

“When a businessman enters Congo looking for diamonds, he usually takes two trucks filled with armed soldiers into the forest. What I did was unbelievable. I walked in with a backpack and a camera, without protection or security. I don’t know why I merited having Hashem protect me. At any moment I could have been robbed or killed. Some of these people had never seen a white person before.”

Communication itself was a complicated process. More than a hundred languages are spoken in Congo, Amit explains. He traveled with two people who helped him communicate with the tribes. Amit spoke English to his companion, who translated for another interpreter, who then translated into the tribal language.

Did you eventually reach the Pygmy tribe?

“Yes. One day, after walking dozens of kilometers along a narrow path, we suddenly encountered two members of the tribe, and they immediately began shooting. My companions threw me down at the side of the path and told me to wait while they went ahead to prepare the tribe for the arrival of a white man.”

The tribe later explained that they had not intended to kill him. They had simply been frightened because they did not understand who was approaching them.

“At that point, I put all my belongings aside and told them, ‘From now on, I have no sleeping bag, no pocketknife, nothing. I’m exactly like you.’”

Amit lived among the tribe for more than a month. He spoke with them extensively, asking questions about their lives and beliefs. He was particularly interested in their religious worldview.

“I asked them questions that fascinated me: How do they live? What do they believe? I loved the tribal chief’s response. He looked at two men beside him, apparently the tribe’s wise men, and said, ‘We’ll think about it and come back to you with answers.’ I respected that.”

Amit also told them about himself, and something unexpected happened: the more he spoke about his own background, the more connected he became to his identity, his homeland and the Jewish people.

Discovering What He Had Been Running From

After finally reaching the place he had dreamed of reaching, Amit experienced an unexpected longing.

“The truth is that when I was living among that primitive tribe, I began to miss something. I didn’t miss my house, my country or my family. I missed myself.”

His thoughts returned to the Judaism lectures he had attended at nineteen. One particular seminar in Jerusalem’s Bayit Vegan neighborhood had made a powerful impression on him and his friends.

“We suddenly understood that Judaism demanded something of us. We were young men just beginning our lives, and all we wanted was freedom. I felt that there were so many things I wanted to do and that I wasn’t ready to be obligated to anything.”

But deep in the rainforest, his perspective changed.

“I told myself: ‘Here I am. I’ve reached the maximum. I’ve done everything I could ever dream of doing. Now it’s time to do what I’m obligated to do.’ Suddenly, that sense of obligation was no longer difficult for me. On the contrary, I wanted to go deeper and deeper into Judaism.”

His Jewish identity, which had once felt burdensome, now seemed like an extraordinary privilege. “The feeling changed from ‘How terrible that I’m Jewish’ to ‘How fortunate I am.’ I belong to a people that reached tremendous spiritual heights thousands of years ago. Suddenly, I felt incredibly fortunate.”

Chapter Three: At the Police Station

After about a month and a half, Amit decided it was time to leave the rainforest. But the greatest danger of his journey was still ahead.

Back in the capital, Amit prepared to part from the local guide who had accompanied him for two months.

“We had survived together, protected each other and watched over each other’s lives. I paid him, and the next day I discovered that he had reported me to the police and claimed that I had never paid him.”

An immigration officer arrived and demanded Amit’s passport. At the police station, Amit discovered that the accusations had escalated dramatically. He was now accused not only of failing to pay his guide, but of entering Congo with the intention of opposing the regime.

“Congo was a brutal dictatorship, and I realized I was in serious danger. I knew I had entered legally with permission and a visa, but that didn’t seem to matter. As far as they were concerned, they could make me disappear.”

Then came what Amit describes as another miracle. The previous day he had met an English-speaking United Nations soldier who had given him his phone number. Amit contacted him for help.

The soldier came to the station but explained that the police had more authority than he did. He advised Amit that if he managed to get out, he should seek help from UNESCO.

That evening, the police released Amit on the condition that he return the following morning. They kept his passport and belongings, making escape virtually impossible.

At UNESCO, Amit met an American human rights worker who promised to intervene if Amit did not return safely by noon the following day.

When Amit returned to the police station, however, he encountered the station commander, an intimidating man who spoke fluent English and had become a devout Christian while studying in Italy.

The commander told Amit that he believed redemption would come only when all Jews converted to Christianity. When he had heard that an Israeli was being held at his station, he had apparently spent the entire night thinking about the opportunity to speak with him.

The situation became surreal. Amit had come prepared to defend himself against accusations of opposing the government. Instead, he found himself engaged in a three-hour religious debate.

“He kept talking, and I explained as passionately as I could why he was wrong and why he would never succeed in convincing Jews to abandon Judaism. The truth is that he had the upper hand. This was his territory. He could have made me disappear at any moment. But I refused to give in. I felt an enormous sense of mission to tell him the truth about Judaism.”

You said you had very little Jewish background. How did you know what to say?

“I used whatever little knowledge I had. And I should mention that throughout my time in Africa, I made a point of keeping Shabbat. Of course, I didn’t know all the halachot that I know today, but I knew the basics and observed them. I also put on tefillin every day.”

Eventually, UNESCO representatives burst through the door and demanded that the police return Amit’s passport. After a heated confrontation, the passport was finally handed back. Amit was rushed into a waiting vehicle and told to remain hidden until he could be flown out several days later on a United Nations business flight.

Chapter Four: Serving Hashem

After everything he had experienced, Amit returned to Israel a different person.

“It wasn’t as though I became fully observant overnight,” he says, “but I made tremendous progress and was constantly moving forward. I couldn’t stop thinking about how Hashem had carried me all the way to the edge of the world in order for me to discover the truth.”

He finally understood that what he had been searching for was not waiting for him in some distant corner of the earth.

“It was actually right here at home. I kept asking myself, ‘Did you really have to travel all the way to the rainforest to discover that?’ I still don’t have an answer. Apparently, sometimes you have to travel far away before you can appreciate what was so close to you all along.”

Around that time, Amit became engaged, and four months later he married. He and his wife considered living abroad but ultimately decided that they wanted to raise their children in Israel, where they believed they could give them the strongest Torah education and values.

“Today I am fully religious,” Amit concludes. “We live in Kiryat Shmuel, and our children attend the community’s schools. We try to keep growing and to do everything we can spiritually. And we know that this isn’t the end of the story. It’s only the beginning.”