Heroic Steven Sotloff feigned illness so he could still fast for Yom Kippur while he hid his Jewish faith and Israeli citizenship from ISIS captors

Steven Sotloff's dual nationality kept secret during his year-long captivity

Israeli media did not mention Sotloff lived in the country since 2008

Kept Judaism secret from captors by feigning illness when he had to fast

Studied in Jerusalem and worked for two Israeli newspapers before his kidnapping in August 2013

Dedicated; Steven Sotloff pictured on assignment in Libya in 2013

Executed Steven Sotloff held joint US-Israeli citizenship but managed to hide his faith from his ISIS captors claims a fellow captive of the journalist who is now free.



The 31-year-old kept his Judaism and his dual nationality secret from his ISIS kidnappers for the entire year he spent in captivity before his death and even managed to fast for Yom Kippur by feigning an illness.

The lengths that Sotloff went to as he practiced his faith were revealed after ISIS released grisly footage of Sotloff's beheading on Tuesday, two weeks to the day reporter James Foley was murdered in the same way by the terror group.

The Israeli media was aware that Sotloff had moved to Jerualem in 2008 and agreed to keep hidden his links to the country in case ISIS dished out brutal treatment to their prisoner who was kidnapped while working in Syria in August 2013.

'We refused to acknowledge any relationship with him in case it was dangerous for him,' said Avi Hoffman, editor of the Jerusalem Report



The acknowledgement that Sotloff's religion and Israeli citizenship was kept secret explains the huge gaps in his public biography that until yesterday went blank between 2005 and just before his capture as a freelancer.



During his captivity, Sotloff, who was devout, would use his Muslim captors who were praying towards Mecca to gauge where Jerusalem was for his daily worship the unidentified fellow captive told the Report.



Sotloff also managed to fast on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calender, which occurred in September of 2013.



'He told them he was sick and didn't want to eat,' his friend said.

Scroll Down for Video



Grieving: Murdered American journalist Steven Sotloff's mother, Shirley Sotloff returns to her home in Miami on Wednesday

Sotloff, who was born in Miami, arrived in Israel in 2008 to become an undergraduate of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. according to the Times of Israel.



From there he went to freelance at the Jerusalem Post and the the Jerusalem Report and from there moved onto Foreign Policy and Time.



His editor at the Jerusalem Report in 2011-12, Illene Prusher, called him fearless.



'He was an excellent journalist, and he filed great work,' she said to the Times of Israel.



'He was our only guy who was filing from the region, and he was filing for a bunch of different places… In addition to covering Libya, he was covering Arab uprisings.

'I felt like he really cared about it, he thought it was extremely important. He was very conscientious, enterprising and brave.'



As a freelancer, Sotloff traveled the Arab world and eventually arrived in Syria in August, 2013.



The Times of Israel said that they knew he was Jewish, but kept it secret in case his kidnappers found out.



Sotloff wrote reports from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Turkey and Syria.



The Jewish journalist - who held joint American and Israeli citizenship - spoke fluent Arabic and had a showed a deep love for the Islamic world before he was captured by ISIS militants in Syria in 2013. He was executed by them on Tuesday.

Sotloff, 31, grew up Miami with his mother Shirley (pictured) - whose parents were both Holocaust survivors - and father Art Arthur Sotloff, father of slain journalist Steven Sotloff, leaves their family home in Pinecrest, Florida, on Tuesday Pinecrest police officers are positioned at the Sotloff family home following Steven Sotloff's execution in Syria Police officers are pictured outside the house, where family and friends are mourning the death of Mr Sotloff

Sotloff, 31, grew up in Miami with his mother Shirley - whose parents were both Holocaust survivors - and father Art before attending the Kimball Union Academy boarding school in New Hampshire from which he graduated in 2002



He then studied at the University of Central Florida.



On Wednesday, Sotloff's mother left her Miami home without making any comment.



Shirley Sotloff briefly waved to the media outside her home in south Miami before getting into a friend's car and driven away.



The Sotloff's had received a steady stream of visitors to their home with some carrying flowers and others baskets of food.



Police have kept guard out die the home with up two patrol cars parked in the driveway.



University of Central Florida President John C. Hitt said on learning of his death: 'Our UCF family mourns Steven’s death, and we join millions of people around the world who are outraged at this despicable and unjustifiable act.'



While at Kimball, Sotloff was an avid rugby player and on moving to UFC began working for the student newspaper the Central Florida Future.



He left the paper in 2005 and began to pursue his dreams of journalism full time.



'The guy lit up a room. He was always such a loyal, caring and good friend to us,' said Josh Polsky to the New York Times. Polsky had shared a dormitory suite with Sotloff.

Respected: During his time in the Middle East, Sotloff, 31, was published in TIME, World Affairs, National Interest and the Christian Science Monitor

'If you needed to rely on anybody for anything he would drop everything on a dime for you or for anyone else.'



After his death on Tuesday, his friends across the world were devastated.



'A million people could have told him what he was doing was foolish, it seemed like it to us outsiders looking in, but to him it was what he loved to do and you weren’t going to stop him,' said his friend, Emerson Lotzia.



'Steve said it was scary over there. It was dangerous. It wasn’t safe to be over there. He knew it. He kept going back.'



Lotzia, now a Florida sports reporter, tweeted his horror after his friend’s execution: ‘Devastated and crushed. Steve was an amazing friend. Lucky to have him in my life. Heart is heavy for his family. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers.’



Sotloff wrote about the lawlessness in Libya after the fall of Colonel Gaddafi, and criticized the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi wrote the New York Times.

Mr Sotloff was the grandson of two Holocaust survivors. Above, a police car is parked outside his family home

With no security organizations to ensure order and an ineffective justice system unable to prosecute suspects, Libyans fear their country is slowly crumbling around them.'



During his time in the Middle East, Sotloff was published in TIME, World Affairs, National Interest, World Affairs Journal and the Christian Science Monitor.



Sotloff 'is known to us as an honest and thoughtful journalist who strives to understand the story from local perspectives and report his findings straightforwardly,' World Affairs said last month.



Foreign Policy editor David Kenner said he would remember Sotloff 'as a brave and talented reporter' while colleague Tom Coghlan recalled him as 'a really good writer and humane journalist'.



An avid user of social media, he sent out his last tweet on August 3 last year about his hometown basketball team the Miami Heat. He is believed to have been kidnapped by Isis the following day.



According to his Twitter account, he was based in Benghazi, Libya, at the time.



In a tweet from June last year he wrote: 'Is it bad that I want to focus on #syria, but all I can think of is a #HEATFinals repeat?'

A friend puts a consoling arm around Steven Sotloff's father Art on the day that he found out his son had been brutally executed by ISIS militants in Syria

'Steven embodies what it takes to report from combat zones,' said Bill Roggio, managing editor of the Long War Journal, a news website for which Sotloff wrote in 2011 from Cairo.



'He has that courage and little bit of craziness that you need to take risks to observe and understand a story in dangerous places.'



Speaking to The Miami Herald before the apparent beheading, she insisted that Sotloff was 'no war junkie'.



He was, she said 'committed to the Arab Spring and very respectful of Islamic culture'.



Sotloff's family had previously been advised not to go public with news of his disappearance.



But a family friend wrote about Sotloff last December, saying he had gone missing on August 4 and to pray for his return.

