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. 

Hamechadesh has two pieces that are curiosities that seemed interesting and quirky enough to point out

the story that keeps on giving... 

Remember the Lebanese fellow, Eliyahu Hawil, posing as a Jew who married a Syrian lady from NY until it was discovered he is not Jewish and that just blew everything up? Well, we thought the story was behind us but now it is all blown up once again.

Remember the story of the Lebanese avreich? How could anyone forget? The news was a splash when it broke. A young man from Lebanon spent years posing as a Jew, and eventually even married a frum young woman, only to be discovered a week later as being a fraud.

This is rich!

By now you surely must have heard about the story in New York of a Lebanese Muslim posing as a Jew having learned in a Chabad yeshiva and even marrying a frum woman in New York until his identity was discovered.

the Chief Rabbinate along with associated rabbis and religious councils, led by Chief Rabbis Rav Dovid Lau and Rav Yitzchak Yosef, gathered today for a conference to discuss the proposed reforms in the kashrut and conversion systems.

After Artem Dolgopyat won the gold medal yesterday representing Israel in the Olympics, his mother made a dramatic statement that caused a bit of a ruckus.

Artem's mother announced that while Artem is being celebrated as a national hero, he would not be able to get married in Israel as he is not Jewish. She publicized that Artem's father is Jewish but she, his mother, is not. Because Artem is not Jewish, he cannot get married in Israel as there is no arrangement for civil marriage here. He and his girlfriend would need to travel abroad to get married.

This caused a bit of a buzz. A national hero, someone has contributed so much to Israel and national pride but we won't consider him Jewish?

The correct answer, I think, is yes, we won't consider him Jewish. Being a good person, bringing in a gold medal, serving in the army is not a form of conversion. If he is not Jewish,he is not Jewish. We don't consider people Jewish just because they did good things for Israel. Maybe it can give special consideration in streamlining the process and not being overly burdensome, but it does not give us the right to just say ok, we'll consider you Jewish.

However, someone like this should be encouraged to convert and the process should not be made difficult for him. His comes form a long line of Jews on his father's side. He is zera yisrael. And if he does not want to convert, he does not need to. Israel should offer some form of civil marriage. Israel has many non-Jewish and non-Muslim citizens, and they need to be able to function and carry on normal lifecycle events and daily activities. Civil marriage could be restricted to non-Jews, if people are worried about what it might cause to the Jewish community and the institution of halachic marriage and potential mamzerus, but these thousands of Israeli citizens need their basic rights to be met.

Kipa brings an interesting psak of the Higher Conversion Court regarding conversion fraud.

People are upset about the Supreme Court decision regarding conversions, but there seems to be a misunderstanding.

No rav will listen to the Supreme Court. The halacha does not recognize it, and the Supreme Court can't change the halacha

the Supreme Court decision regarding the acceptance of private conversions, seemingly opening the door for Reform conversions to be accepted in Israel, was not unexpected. What is interesting is more on the side of the various reactions to it, rather than the decision itself.

The Supreme Court rejected the government request to delay a decision on the Conversion Bill until after the elections, to give the 24th Knesset a chance to finally legislate the matter. The Court indicated it will give its decision prior to the upcoming elections.

Remember the story of the mother and son converts who were originally from the Philippines? They had received eviction orders and were to be sent back tot he Philippines, due to overstaying visas and all sorts of technical mishaps with their appeals.

So here is an update:

Yesterday, according to Channel 12 News, the Ministry of Interior announced that the decision has been made and is final - the mother and son will be banished form Israel within 45 days.

Of course nothing is final until it actually happens, and even then it still isn't always final...

Less than 45 minutes later Minister of the Interior Aryeh Deri announced that he is freezing the orders to send them home. According to Deri this situation will remain frozen until after the Corona period is over, whenever that will be, if ever, and only then will he review the case and make a decision.

So little Moshe Dovid gets to stay in Israel for the foreseeable future!