By COLlive reporter
Over the last 2 weeks, rabbis and activists in Jewish communities in New York and Texas have been investigating the case of a couple who were joyfully married at a ceremony in Brooklyn.
Sally, a young Jewish Sephardic woman, went out on a date with a man she met on a Jewish dating website. He presented his name as Eliyah Haliwa, an observant Jew from Beirut, Lebanon who was fluent in Hebrew and frum Jewish life.
The couple was soon married at the wedding hall of Ohel David & Shlomo-Torat Israel Sephardic Cong. of Manhattan Beach, New York. In their wedding video, the newlyweds are seen smiling as they are surrounded by a crowd of frum Jews.
All that changed when Sally discovered her husband’s Lebanese passport identifying him by another name and appearance. According to a report on Yeshiva World News, Sally contacted relatives and friends who reached out to authorities.
According to the report, the FBI, US Department of Homeland Security and the Israeli Consulate General in New York were contacted about the case.
Sally is reportedly in a safe house.
VIDEO:
One of the credentials Haliwa presented while dating was that he visited the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The center’s Shliach Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff released the following statement to COLlive.com on Monday:
“Since 2007, the Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at Texas A & M has been serving all Jewish faculty and students to explore their Judaism.
“A student, presenting himself as Eliyah Hawila, who frequented campus Jewish institutions (including serving as president at one), began visiting Chabad in 2018 (he never studied at a Chabad-affiliated yeshiva, nor was he proficient in Hebrew).
“Last year, he met a woman from New York on a Jewish dating website.
“He falsely presented himself to her as observant. When I was asked by the woman, I informed her that from what I observed his conduct did not reflect that of an observant Jew.
“The fundamental responsibility of the officiating rabbi at a wedding, the mesader kiddushin, is to determine the Jewish status (birur hayahadut) of the couple and ensure that they are both Jewish, single and allowed to marry each other in accordance with Jewish law. I was not officiating the marriage ceremony, nor were we involved in the wedding preparations and our attendance was predicated on the understanding that the officiating rabbi had done their due diligence to confirm the groom’s Jewish status.
“The wedding was supposed to be officiated by Rabbi Ezra Zafrani. He prepared the ketuba, but was ultimately not able to attend and his son, Rabbi David Zafrani, officiated.
“Prior to the wedding, Rabbi Ezra Zafrani and Rabbi David Zafrani did not inquire with me about his Jewish status. In advance of the wedding, the father of the bride asked me about his Jewish status and I told him I don’t know and the officiating rabbi needs to determine that.
“Mrs. Zafrani requested that we join the wedding at the couple’s behest, as my wife and I would be in New York then. At the wedding, I was told that his Jewish status was confirmed. As the groom had no family attending, at the request of the couple and the Zafranis, we walked him down to the chuppah and I signed the ketubah.
“We were clearly all misled about his identity. Our hearts go out to this woman, her family and everyone else deceived by this individual here in Texas and in New York and New Jersey.”
*
Calls to Rabbi Ezra Zafrani, a resident of Lakewood, NJ, and his son Rabbi David Zafrani, a resident of Midwood, NY, were not answered or returned.
he sounds like a sleeper terrorist who would give his ISIS and al qaeda handlers coordinates where to attack Jews.
Without any evidence to support this, it’s akin to antisemites making up bogus claims about Jews. How is this in any way helpful?
Maybe now people will be a little more respectful when responsible rabbis demand documentation? To often I hear complaints how the “rabbis” are making it to difficult by asking for sufficient evidence. Seems like this rabbi caved to the pressure and didn’t follow standard protocol and look what happened.
Nobody ever checked my kids’ status – on the contrary, when my husband took my Ketubah to the Rabbi didn’t bother to look at it and told him to put it away..
There is a thing that when a person is known in the community you don’t need to check.
These would be the first that need checking. Responsibilities firstly to parents then Rabbonim. Outrageous behaviour.
When a groom or bride request that one family not attend that is not a red flag? That means no one in the officiating party met the groom’s parents!
It was HER PARENTS Responsibility to check him out! Why are people blaming Rabbis?!
HER PARENTS needed to insist on meeting or at least talking by phone to his mother AND father, and High School Principal. If there were no parents or high school friends to talk to, that would prove he was a fraud
That why it is so importent for a rov who is marrying you should check the parents kesuba so this way you know for sure That they are jewish.
I feel bad for this girl .
Doesn’t mean anything these days. You can buy a off the shelf kesubah and write names of rabbonim who have passed away as eidim etc. Unfortunately is North America it’s a free for all and no single database for gittin and Kiddushin unlike Israel and UK.
Rabbis yes but if no one shows family etc it would be a red flag. Not blaming anyone because sociopaths are very clever but it’s a good lesson for everyone. CV should never happen to anyone .
I wouldn’t say that is a red flag for all people without family members at their wedding. I’m a baalas teshuvah and didn’t have any at mine. It’s pretty common for us to become estranged from relatives.
Doesn’t sound like he really had any proof that had been verified though, but they went through with it anyway.
I think the point is that no family at the wedding proves nothing, but it’s unusual — even for baali teshuva — and can be a reason for extra investigation
Isn’t it possible that he’s a ger?
Paperwork for a Ger is needed. PROOF!
A ger wouldn’t be a worry at all as its so easily provable. Either the person went through a conversion or not. I didn’t need to present proof of my conversion as the rabbiem were so respected and well known that it would be impossible to lie about it. Jews from birth, if they aint got yechus, DO SOME DIGGING! ESPECIALLY from an area such as Beirut.
As a Giyoret, I need to present paperwork for my shul membership, to attend seminary, etc. I have even needed to present my paperwork to get a chavruta. If he was a Ger, his paperwork would have been checked. On other sites, it indicates that he had even presented a fake family tree. I think that the community is trying to find answers but there really aren’t any. There are odd balls everywhere. This is a person who went to extreme lengths to look frum. There are really good con artists everywhere. This poor Kallah got conned and it seems… Read more »
Wow sounds like you were treated as second class and that is wrong. If you think that’s ok, then I feel bad.
Non- observant singles live together before marriage. The “marriage” to a non-Jew is invalid. So, now she needs a civil divorce and to sue him for fraud and deception both civilly and criminally (because she never consented to relations with a Gentile).
Between the Christian missionaries infiltrating Jewish communities and now this, this is frightening. Could really be a situation where you don’t even know who your neighbor is..
Do you all also know that this girl has done this before. Married a couple times, engaged even more.
The rabbis did verify that his grandparents were married by the Rabbanit of Jerusalem.
Something is wrong with this story. Seems like a lot is missing from this story.
NOTE:Peope that live in Muslim countries usually go by a native name and many don’t have a Jewish name documented anywhere.
Then why was he born in Lebanon?
There Jews from Lebanon
The fact that there are Lebanese Jews does not determine that he’s Jewish
Where are you getting your information from? I’ve heard from people who know her. Yes, she was married previously (once) but she’s not at all what you’re making her out to be.
From where did you gather this information?
Very interesting how no one knows this but u and ur blaming her… “she had done this before” like she knows he was a non Jew Pls …. She met him at a Jewish dating door had a Jewish wedding etc seems like ur ether the guy himself or know him
scammers know how to target those who are desperate and easily manipulable
Why are you lying .
She was married only once before.
Are you her ex.
Stop making up stuff
Let’s say you are right and he has a native name and Jewish name. Isn’t that something he should have told her when they were dating? Before she found it on his passport?
Why there would be complaints about what is necessary according to Jewish status “should” be a mitzvah to produce when asked and proudly shown. What is hidden will be revealed one day. Poor girl. May HaShem comfort her.
Someone living in Lebanon will have an Arab name in their passport. He is not going to run around or be knows as Yerachmiel or Shmulik. There were big rabbanim who had Arab names.
History of the Jews in Lebanon – Wikipedia
I don’t know of any young Jews born in Lebanon. We don’t have good ties with them for many years like going back 60 plus. And his last name is more Egyptian.
As of the mid 80s there were still Jews in Lebanon. The Rebbe paid to renovate a Mikvah in Lebanon in 1982 or 1983. Rabbis Leibel Kaplan, Levi Bistritzky and Rami Anatian (all OBM) were involved in the renovations.
B”H
if someone who’s not israeli is getting married there, the rabbi of the city in Israel, will ask for a letter from a SPECIFIC rabbi from a LIST (the chief rabbinate office has a list of specific rabbis from every country in the world) of the country that the Chosson/kallah is from, and THEN the rabbi will open the marriage file for the couple.
So I’ve found his Twitter https://twitter.com/eliyah_hawila/with_replies, where he defends Israel and is a fan of Trump since 2019.
So here’s my take, he genuinely wanted to become Jewish (I suspect we will hear soon he tried to convert in Texas but was refused) and thought he found an easy way in.
If he’s a Trump supporter what more proof do you need??
Not all Jews, even frum ones “like Trump.”
This twitter account doesn’t exist
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Vmu4XDp9D-0J:https://twitter.com/eliyah_hawila%3Flang%3Den+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl
Hashem yerachaim
#Someone living in Lebanon will have an Arab name
YOU MEAN LIKE OSAMA BIN LADEN?
Bin Laden did not live in Lebanon, but many of his family – and he had plenty – lived in Boston. It was President Bush who let them leave the US on a private plane after 9/11.
Not every Arab is like Osama Bin Laden, and most yidden have names like the country and culture where they live in even if they are frum.
If he is not Jewish let him go to yeshiva, learn and megayer.
Here is what you all don’t know:
He is pro-Israel, in Arabic, on his Twitter (which he made in 2016).
He has been commenting on Beirut’s Jewish Community’s Facebook since 2015 (he has since deleted his fb but this can be searched via google cache).
He was a serious student at Texas A&M Uni and involved in their space research (also searchable).
His college friends tell me his Jewish parents went through a nasty divorce.
Most likely explanation: He simply hid his Beirut roots in an effort to hide his less religious and Arabic background.
This thinking is exactly how people get conned. This guy presented fake documents!
Even if that’s on his page doesn’t mean anything.
He could be a spy trying to sneak into the community… or not could be.. but is and he’s putting up that image…
His parents are Jewish…?
Apparently his Instagram account is still up
NONE OF THE GROOM PARENTS ATTENDED HIS WEDDING , AND NO MEMBER OF HIS FAMILY. . ENOUGH EVIDENCE THAT THERE IS SOMETHING VERY WRONG. , VERY FISHY.
Remembering the Rebbes strong, heart wrenching battle regarding certain issues, it is surprising that Our Rebbeim are not raising a heaven-piercing cry when they learn what drastic measures of the new Israeli government are being pushed through on a gut-wrenching daily basis, including bringing thousands of Ethiopians to Israel, when they know 100% that none are Jewish, and daily tampering with a status who that no one even dared touch before regarding kashrut, civil marriages, and weakening every last semblance of Torah. If salvation doesn’t come from our Chabad Rabbanim from where will it come???
Who is born in Saudi Arabian told me his father is Muslim and mother jewish from morocco who knows any more you can’t rely any more on anyone
laying tifilin is not marrying them off.
According to another article, he presented a bogus family tree that included not only ashkenazi names, but one of a 1920s American mobster names Meyer Lansky(born in Belarus). A total con artist or worse!
meyer lansky was born in grodno poland to a frum family his real last name before ellis island was schuwalsky
That girl , Sally should have known this guy does not act like a Jew , she should have sensed it. No matter where are Jew comes from , Mexico , Brazil , France , Germany , NO matter what culture he has , even not religious ,
It is easy to tell I’d that person is Jewish. That silly Sally should have guessed.
I live on the block where Sally was a boarder before this event. I met the chosson for a few moments. He sounded and looked like any other sephardic guy that lives in the Midwood area.
Those Rabbaim should have checked his parents , his family members and they did not
It’s their fault. They put that girl in a horrible position.
This so called Rabbi failed miserably at his job. He should resign and do some soul searching. It is his responsibility to triple check before agreeing to officiate a chuppah. Who knows how many couples he married when we didn’t find out that one of them isn’t jewish… he might be responsible for intermarriage in our community.
Human mistakes happen buch such a mistake is NEVER allowed to happen
Straight spy. The FBI is involved
For those who don’t know, this individual is a terrorist operative!! His arabic name printed on the certificate he’s holding in the picture is Ali Hasan Hwelah. If you simply google his name in Arabic you will come across a Lebanese arabic website, there it shows him, on 7/17/2015, amongst 4 other individuals, receiving certificates of honor, as a new member of the “Amal” (hope) movement, which is a branch of Hizbullah terrorist group. He was sent on a mission to infiltrate Jewish communities. He joined Chabad to get basic knowledge about Judaism, and hard to be detected through Chabad,… Read more »
SORRY TO SAY THE ROV THAT CARRIED OUT THE BIRUR HAYAHADUS ON THIS MUSLIM HAS A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO. HOW MANY OTHERS SUSPECT BOGUS JEWS HAS HE DECLARED JEWISH???
RACHMONO LITZLON
NO WONDER HES NOT RETURNING CALLS
I chose to be Jewish many years ago. I went to the Beit Din of Rab Nissim Karelitz. They asked for letters from my Rabbi and they called him to confirm. They obtain his telephone number independently, as to make sure it was him and not some person who’s telephone number I provided and was posing. They also called the Rosh Yieshivah where I was studding. I was grilled on Hallacha, I don’t think I have ever been so nervous. There were about nine people in the room. The three Rabanim from the Beit Din and I imagine their students.… Read more »
Why didn’t didnt the Bet Din check paper work to prove he and ( she were Jewish )
Where is the guy now?
This young lady was not on good speaking terms with her parents. Sadly that whatever issues there were they did not have Shalom Bayis between child and parent. Parents usually do background checks abd call references … in this case that did not happen and tragic results. Lesson: children go resolve all issues with your parents. If you cant have a close relationship, find a way to at least have Shalom and be on speaking terms. If boundaries are deemed necessary, that’s fine but cutting a parent off is not the right way even if modern day psychology and therapist… Read more »
Was it necessary to embarrass the bride, particularly with pictures, and the officiating rabbis involved? The bride certainly didn’t need to be exposed. Yes it appears he was being deceptive but why would we immediately suspect that this man had nefarious intentions, requiring a safe house? I don’t think it’s terribly unusual for nonJews affiliated with Judaism to consider themselves Jewish even when they have been told that halachically they are not. It’s also not unusual for those who have not been born with a Jewish name being called a different name than the one on their official documents. Lastly,… Read more »
I absolutely agree with this one. I am really sad that many Jewish websites put the picture and videos up of this poor kallah. She needs to get back to real life and imyh needs to get married again. Her picture being all over frum news is not going to help her at all. We have all lost our sensitivity to privacy. Yes , people need to be aware of the story as a warning to check yichus , however we could do without her picture.
We are not concerned with whether this person does not consider himself Muslim. Nor are we concerned with his religious status in the eyes of the the rest of the Muslim community. They are free to interpret Islamic law whichever way they deem correct. We are concerned with Jewish law, i.e.halachah. as interpreted by orthodox rabbanim. There is no room for laxity in this matter. I have heard misguided people saying “I am Jewish because I consider (and/or declare) myself Jewish.” Yet halachically, even if such a declaration is sincere it certainly does not confer the status of Ger on… Read more »
It’s a Hizballah job
So sad my ❤go for this 😢 Jewish woman.