Shock in Brooklyn as Chassan Is Revealed to Be Non-Jewish

A family simchah took a terrifying turn a few weeks after the wedding, when it was revealed not only had the chassan been dishonest about his past, he allegedly is not even Jewish.

According to reports, the young man posed as a yeshivah student for several years in Texas before marrying a young frum woman from Brooklyn. He claimed to not to have family in the United States, and was walked down the aisle by a rabbi he was close to.

He provided a family tree and letters he claimed were from coworkers and employers.

Though there had been no suspicions leading up to the wedding, the kallah and her family became concerned when they found he had multiple passports, including one from Lebanon, and photos of him with Muslim people now believed to be his real family members.

The man is in fact a Muslim from Lebanon.

According to the original reports, the man – who called himself Eliyahu Haliwa – admitted to both the NYPD and his wife that he is not Jewish. He says that he is not an anti-Semite and married a Jewish woman because he wanted to be Jewish. However, he had previous claimed that he worked for the National Security Agency and that he had visited Israel, both of which are untrue.

NYPD Community Affairs Deputy Inspector Richie Taylor said that the incident comprised “no credible threat to the Jewish community and there are no ties to this situation and terrorism.”

Taylor’s remarks sought to calm the community after rumors that the man in question had ties to the Hezbollah terror group.