We show that elliptic classes introduced in [7] for spaces with infinite fundamental groups yield Novikov's type higher elliptic genera which are invariants of K-equivalence. This include, as a special case, the birational invariance of higher Todd classes studied recently by J.Rosenberg and J.Block-S.Weinberger. We also prove the modular properties of these genera, show that they satisfy a McKay correspondence, and consider their twist by discrete torsion.