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 N.Y. 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 NY 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.
Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff
Rohr Chabad Jewish Student Center at Texas A&M University
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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13 Responses
Dear Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff:
You have nothing to apologize for nor justify for.
It is so absolutely not your task to check out people’s back grounds, and quite frankly, if you did, you wouldn’t have time to get involved in any of your other amazing work.
מזל ברכה והצלחה
147
sounds like a lot of finger pointing and “thats not my job.”
American Rabbis need to verify every couple’s status before they act as mesader kedushin. If they can do it in the UK & Israel, they can do it in the US.
a simple statement ORIGINALLY of saying we dont believe he is a Jew couldve resolved
Crazy people in this world
Something doesnt shtim here. I am truly trying to figure out what happened , what went wrong and how to prevent a future disaster. We have nonJews posing as Mohelim and Rabbis, and now this.
A Chabad Rabbi signs the ketuba and walks the groom down the aisle while claiming that he warned the bride that the groom lied about his being frum (“I informed her that from what I observed his conduct did not reflect that of an observant Jew.”). Why participate in such an intimate manner which gives the message that you emotionally support the groom?
Next, the Chabad Rabbi states that the brides father asked him about the grooms religious lineage. If the answer was ” I dont know , ask the Mesader Kedushin”, then why didnt the brides father ask Rabbi Zafrani?? The Chabad Rabbi says that at the wedding he was told that the grooms Jewish status was confirmed. Weird, no?
Something doesnt shtim….I know noone likes to farshter a shidduch but this is taking things a bit far.
I wonder how much is unknown or ignored by some mesadrei kidushin. A kohen is not allowed to marry a divorcee. Even here in North West London, England I personally know of a Kohen who married a woman who was divorced by another man. Which mesader kidushin is carrying the responsibility of this forbidden relationship on his shoulders? One can only presume they married elsewhere. The London Botei Din are very diligent to check such matters properly.
Thank you Chabad for everything you do. There’s a way to avoid any risks of this kind. Surround yourself with the elite. Accept people only on your own turf, on your own terms. Do not show up at any such weddings where you are not officiating. But Chabad dares to put fringes on people at the fringes, risking mishaps of this kind. When you stand next to muddy people, your shirt can sometimes get a superficial stain. I’d wear that superficial stain with pride where things go a bit sideways. You’re there for us, putting your necks out, and saving us from our lonely paths. The fact that mishaps like this can happen is just proof that you’re in the trenches saving one neshama after the other.
Clearly, there was a degree of negligence on the part of both rabbis. I am still wondering, however, why the parade and her family did not follow up on all the red flags that were raised by The circumstances as described in the article
@Canadian Guy, Well said!!
I watched the video once that’s floating around of him making a “Toast” “L’Chaim” at the wedding.
And I was thinking to my self instantly, this guy is an amazing actor.
Actually better then a lot of real actors that try to act jewish in movies etc.. (and sadly some are even “Jewish”)
BUT, from the fact that I knew that I’m watching a video of a fraud there was one statment he made. That turned on a red light in my head. If you watch the video, you will hear him mention somthing about “Born again”
I think even Muslims dont use that phrase. I thonk its a Crishtian thing. I have never heard a non frum Jew or even a Baal Tshuva use that term.
It’s the responsibility of the officiating Rabbi to do a research on the yechis of the couple it’s not the bride or grooms Rabbi in most of the world there is a Central Bais Din that does this for all couples even when the towns Rabbis daughter gets married there is still a research done. In Israel most American Rabbis are not accepted because of this. This was not the Chabad Rabbi’s responsibility even if he did sign as a Eid it was the Rabbi who did the wedding.
As someone with much firsthand knowledge of this story (a family member of mine hosted Sheva brochos [levatala]) I would like to point out a few things
1) this was perhaps the most sophisticated fake in recent history, for example most fakes can be easily outed by looking at their recent history in this case his story about being affiliated with chabad of Texas for years was in fact true
2) it’s easy for people with the benefit of hindsight to say “I wouldn’t have fallen for it…” to which I say – how do you know – Shegiot Mi Yavin, this man prayedin community shuls in Brooklyn for around 6 months and fit right in
3) the rabbis were approached by the couple after they met & asked to help them get married, this doesn’t absolve the Rabbi from doing DD but you need to understand that there were NO major red flags & as stayed before his background story DID check out, also at that point anyone meeting them would assume the girl also did her independent diligence and any research on your part would be secondary. Nonetheless Rabbi Zafrani put out a statement taking responsibility for his part in this mishap
4) the Chabad rabbi admits that rabbi zafrani called them but denies vouching for him, if that’s the case what would you have done if you were the rabbi asking the question and not receiving a satisfactory answer? – obviously he either got a satisfactory answer from the Chabad rabbi or from any subsequent person he spoke with. The Chabad statement has a very defensive tone.
A few takeaways are as follows:
1) don’t date online but of you are going to youust ask to see the other party’s ID at some point
2) people involved in kiruv / outreach have a very important role at vetting out fakers (it becomes much harder once they have hung around for a while not to mention years…) If the Chabad rabbi was half the man rabbi zafrani is he would at least own up to this oversight / mishap (this also applies to frum schools & other institutions that lend credibility to an individual)
3) anyone tasked with research / vetting must not rely on anyone else’s research, you need to build a conclusion based only on the facts that you have gathered