Jackson was in tears after visiting the Museum of Tolerance's Holocaust exhibit one week before its Los Angeles opening in February 1993.

But two years later he released a song that included lyrics offensive to some Jews.

In 1999, the King of Pop developed close ties with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. Six years later, Jackson described two former Jewish business associates as "leeches".

That same year, 2005, he was seen wearing a red kabbalah string on his wrist.

Boteach, on holiday in Iceland, reminisced about his "warm relationship" with Jackson, who died on June 25 in Los Angeles at the age of 50.

"At one point, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was visiting and I wanted Michael to meet him," Rabbi Boteach said.

Jackson's entourage urged him not to meet with Sharon for fear of offending some of his fans, but the music icon ignored the advice.

"Any suggestions that Michael was not friendly to the Jewish community are inaccurate," he said, although he added that he had not talked to Jackson for the past few years.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Museum of Tolerance, took Jackson on a two-hour tour of the museum ending with the vivid exhibit on the Final Solution.

"When he left, Michael was crying, and he wrote to me afterwards that he cried for weeks," Hier recalled.

Two years later Hier and Jackson corresponded again, but this time the tone was quite different. Jackson had just released an album featuring the song They Don't Care About Us, with the lyrics "Jew me, sue me, everybody do me/Kick me, kike me, don't you black or white me."

Hier wrote an angry letter to Jackson, who replied: "I am committed to tolerance, peace and love."

The singer promised that an explanatory note would accompany future album sales.

Jackson - who died while in rehearsal for 50 dates at London's O2 Arena - met Boteach in 1999 and the two became friends, touring together to promote the Heal the Kids campaign. It was Boteach who escorted Jackson to the Carlebach Shul in Manhattan that year, accompanied by Uri Geller.

Boteach said: "I pray that Michael's death will not be in vain, and that we see a return, even among Hollywood celebrities, to the spiritual and family values that are life sustaining."

Geller was so close to the Off The Wall star that he asked him to be best man when he married Hanna in 2001.

During his trip to Britain for the wedding, Jackson also addressed the Oxford University Union.

In 2005, a taped telephone conversation revealed Jackson's comments about his ex-business associates.

On the other, after Jackson emerged from a trial in Santa Maria in which he had been acquitted of child molestation charges, his left wrist sported a red string, worn by kabbalah adherents.

The kabbalah speculation was replaced in the past year with reports that Jackson had secretly converted to Islam, following the lead of his brother Jermaine, and had chosen the name Mikaeel.