By COLlive reporter
U.S. law enforcement agencies have concluded that the man who has shocked the Jewish world for allegedly impersonating an observant Jew does not pose a threat to the wider Jewish community.
The New York Police Department has been investigating whether Ali Hasan Haliwa, who had been going by the name Eliya Haliwa, had been posing as a Jewish person for the purposes of infiltrating the Jewish community.
Haliwa, who reportedly was born in Beirut, Lebanon, has recently married Sally, a young Jewish woman from Brooklyn, at a wedding officiated by Rabbi David Zafrani of New York.
Sally has since discovered her husband’s Lebanese passport identifying him by a Muslim name and has suspected that he is not Jewish. She has gone into hiding and her relatives and friends of hers reached out to authorities.
The NYPD intelligence division, as well as the joint terrorism task force which encompasses the FBI, were involved in the investigation into Haliwa’s past.
On Tuesday, police said that they do not believe there was a criminal element to the Haliwa’s deception. Rather, “he was lonely and just wanted to be part of the Jewish community,” according to one source.
According to people who encountered him, Haliwa had tried this before in a Jewish community in Texas but it did not work. Sources also told COLlive.com that Haliwa has admitted that his parents are not Jewish.
NYPD Deputy Inspector Richie Taylor, Commanding Officer of Community Affairs, Office of the Chief of Community Affairs, told COLlive.com: “Regarding the male who impersonated a Jewish individual to a female and then married her in a religious Jewish ceremony in Brooklyn, there is no credible threat to New York City’s Jewish community and there are no ties between this situation and terrorism.”
Rabbis have criticized Rabbi Zafrani and his father Rabbi Ezra Zafrani, a respected Syrian rabbi in Lakewood, N.J., for not conducting a birur yuchsin background check to verify Haliwa’s Jewish genealogy.
But it doesn’t alter the fact that ALL Rabbonim, worldwide, need to check on the halachic status of every couple. My friend’s maternal side was Jewish (so was her father’s!), but they were missing documentation, so she had to undergo giyur. Today she’s as frum as any of us. She was OK with it, she understood that from E. Europe to South America things got lost.
Very confusing
We don’t convert to get married. And who would want to be married to someone that tricked them into marrying them!!! He obviously has another plan behind this and it isn’t to be Jewish. If someone wanted to be Jewish he would have converted already. If she can’t trust her husband and doesn’t even know who he is why would she marry him!!!!????!!!!
To dangerous to be innocent until proven guilty. Obviously, he was trained and funded by some affiliates. He should be in custody until a thorough investigation
is done.
I would like to remind everyone that NYPD always said there is no credible threat as they are not in the intelligence business but in the response business.
Green card, maybe?
Although so much easier to find a non-Jew willing
Perhaps someone should talk to him about conversion. He obviously has a Jewish soul
Shame.