the Lebanese groom divorces his wife, just in case

We have not heard form the Lebanese groom in a while. To remind you, Eliyahu Hawila from Lebanon living in the USA posed as a Jew while he became frum, though he was not actually Jewish. Hawila met a nice frum girl form the Syrian community and they dated and married. her family shortly thereafter discovered his real identity and that he is not Jewish and chased him out of town. Hawila went soul searching, I guess, and actually discovered that he is Jewish, as a maternal grandmother a few generations back was Jewish and married a Muslim, and the generations of daughters since had lived as Muslims but were actually Jewish, making him Jewish. this discovery made things even more complicated because, if true, his wife would now need a gett, an official halachic divorce paper and not just a civil divorce. 

Hawila wanted to reconcile and because he was actually Jewish, in at least his opinion, he wanted to stay married and it would not be a problem with her Syrian community as he is not a convert. A beis din supposedly did the research and actually discovered it to be true, he is Jewish, but to erase any shadow of a doubt he did a conversion lchumra.

The story has made it into the news once again. 

The lady's family filed for annulment in the beis din of the Rabbanut of Tel Aviv. The family claimed because he was a Muslim at the time of the wedding the marriage was null and void and no divorce should be needed. The beis din did their own research and also discovered he is actually Jewish, or at least there is a strong possibility of that being so. The Rabbanut beis din decided that because of the possibility he might have been Jewish all along, they cannot approve of the dissolution of the marriage without a gett. 

To that end, the beis din put a restraining order on Hawila preventing him from leaving Israel until he would grant the divorce to his wife.

It took several months, but Hawila has now granted his wife the divorce. She is finally rid of him. The crazy story has finally come to an end. At least until he dupes another Jewish girl into marrying him.

------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel

------------------------------------------------------