A Jewish newlywed woman from Brooklyn discovered her new husband is apparently a Palestinian-Lebanese Muslim who had been posing as a Jew, only two weeks after the couple tied the knot.
The man, who spent several years learning in a Jewish seminary dressed as an ultra-Orthodox Jews, U.S. and Israeli media reported. They added that he spoke fluent Hebrew.
He was identified as Eliyah Haliwa by a Texas rabbi, but the bride’s family unearthed three passports with his picture on them and different names, and documents that apparently identified him as Lebanese.
He was also said to be a Muslim Palestinian from Beirut. There are several hundred thousand Palestinians living in Lebanon, where they are treated as second class citizens without the rights to work in certain jobs.
It was only after the wedding that someone told the father of the bride that he needs to look into the groom, the source said.
As soon as the bride’s family made the discovery, they arranged for the bride to be taken to a safe location.
The FBI is involved in the incident, sources told the Yeshiva World Website, together with the Department of Homeland Security as well as the Israeli Consulate General has been updated on the case.
The man provided a family tree he produced that was “riddled with glaring inaccuracies,” the report said, including Ashkenazi names (he was purporting to be a Sephardic Jew) called “Meyer Lansky,” the name of a notorious 1920s New York Jewish mobster.
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