I didn't like how sanctimonious some people were at the time, saying that this shows how Israel's more centralized system is necessary and in the USA without a centralized system, anything goes and someone can get away with this type of a thing. This was used to show how the coming reforms in Israel to decentralize the systems and change the way the Rabbanut functions will be dangerous to the Jewish community and open it up to similar situations as to what happened with thee Lebanese avreich, Eli Hawila.

Well, it happened in Israel too. Not exactly the same. not intentional fraud by the young man, but pretty similar. A form of fraud by the young man's mother.

According to Kikar and other Haredi news media sites, a young man, a top student in an excellent yeshiva, in shidduchim discovered that his mother isn't Jewish (though the father is), ergo neither is he. His parents had made aliya from the Ukraine some years ago and she never underwent a conversion and never told anyone until now that she is not Jewish, and only told him now because of the shidduch situation.

The young man was devastated to discover this information and went to tell his rav in yeshiva about this. the rebbi from the yeshiva went to the Chief Rabbi, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, to relate the situation and to request that a solution be found quickly so things will calm down and people can move on.

Rav Yitzchak Yosef decided, obviously, that the young man needs a conversion if he wants to be Jewish, but he told the relevant people in the conversion system to make it a speedy one - I guess he already knows the material and lifestyle so he doesnt need to spend a year or two studying for it and absorbing the culture. 

The young man has started the conversion process now and will return to yeshiva and shidduchim when it has been completed.

What a devastating thing to discover. Flips your entire world around. For him it was obvious immediately to go through a conversion, though I am not sure everyone would be so quick to make the same decision upon a similar discovery. Honestly, I sometimes wonder what I would do in that situation.

Why speed it up for him but make it so difficult for others, including the Lebanese Hawila in the USA? Because this young man was not defrauding anyone. he claimed to be Jewish because he thought he was. He wasnt knowingly passing himself off as someone else, and he is not a newbie coming to learn a new religion. he knows it all already and wants the lifestyle, so there is no reason to drag it out.

All that being said, the mother fooled the centralized system and the entire community and yeshiva and raised this young man to be the best boy in the yeshiva despite not even being Jewish. It can happen even in a centralized system with the Rabbanut controlling the books, not just in the free for all of America.

remember Eli Hawila, the Lebanese avreich that got married and then his wife's family discovered he was not even Jewish? And then he discovered he had been Jewish all along but did a conversion lchumra?

There is a new development in his situation.

According to Kikar, Hawila appeared before the beis din of the Rabbanut in Israel. Hawila insisted he is Jewish and has been Jewish all along, descended from Jewish women, and that after the incident with his wife he performed a conversion lchumra in the USA.

The Rabbanut beis din proposed that he divorce his wife lchumra - just in case, just in case he really was Jewish all along.

Hawila reportedly refused saying he was and is Jewish and his conversion is only lchumra, so he was and remains married to his wife.

It looks like we might have an aguna situation developing before our eyes. Hopefully it wont become that.

Hawila says that his wife has agreed to remain married to him if he could prove he is Jewish, even though her family disagrees.

The Rabbanut left him with two options for now - either divorce her or have another wedding lchumra (if she agrees) just in case he was not Jewish and the conversion is good.

I wonder how that works as the Syrian comunity has ane dict against marrying converts. This wedding, should it happen, would be in case he is a convert, but if he is, she would not be allowed to marry him. I wonder if this is a situation in which the community rabbis would allow it despite the edict or if they would disallow it unless he is considered born-a-jew and not a convert.

We wait for further updates

crazy story in the news out of the New York Jewish community.

I'll just start off by saying that no system is perfect and mistakes happen in every system and things fall through the cracks everywhere . This incident indicates nothing about this community being better or worse than any other in any way.

A fellow from a well known Haredi community in Brooklyn, having previously learned in a known Hassidic yeshiva, got married a few weeks ago.

According to the report on kikar, this community is known for its level of strictness and refuse to allow its member to marry even converts.

For whatever reason, this yeshiva bochur was alone in the world. He must have had some story, but it raised no eyebrows when nobody from his family was coming to his wedding. This young man spoke fluent Hebrew and learned well in yeshiva and nobody doubted who he claimed to be. The rav and rebbetzin of the community led him to his chuppa.

According to the report, after they were already married, some of the bride's family members decided to look into him, though I don't know why at that point, and went into their house to look around. They found three passports of his each with a different name. They also found pictures of him with the appearance of a Muslim.

They went to the rabbonim who told the wife to leave immediately, while they work to clarify the situation.

They now believe that this young man is a Lebanese Muslim, who never converted to Judaism. They do not know why he would pose as a Jew, learn in yeshiva, etc. All angles, including criminal, are being pursued.

Crazy!

By the way, there is more information including names, pictures and names of the communities involved here:

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Remember the Lebanese Avreich that turned out to not even be Jewish? And then he told his sob story claiming he just got caught up in a web of lies he couldn't get out of, he had to keep making up lies to explain away things because of his previous lies, and he didnt know how to get out of the cycle...

Well, now he is appealing to the masses with a GoFundMe page. he wants the public to fund his travel to Israel and living expenses so that he can study for conversion to Judaism. Hawila is looking to raise $10,000.

Give, don't give, that's up to you, but I have better things to give to...

1. Yoelish Krausz, known as the Operations Officer (kambatz) of the Eida Hachareidish is already busy building his sukka. Even for the people who build early to add mitzvas before Yom Kippur don't start this early.

When asked why he started so early, Krausz explained that the City of Jerusalem is about to publish a statute of some sort that will not allow anyone to build a sukka in public areas - no sukkas in streets. And the old joke of "you have 7 days to remove it" isnt going to happen - people who do will be subject to fins and the sukkas will be dismantled right away and confiscated. He thinks that by building it in advance he will be grandfathered in and will be able to keep it up during sukkos.

I wonder if he also plans to leave it up for future years just because he is grandfathered in and will just leave it there all the time...

If true, that will negatively affect many people in Jerusalem who have very small porches or even no open porch at all. So many people build their sukkas out in the streets.

2. Eli Hawala, the Lebanese avreich who wasnt Jewish but then claimed to be and now may be in the conversion lchumra process was spotted at a demonstration in the Shimon Hatzaddik (aka Shiekh Jarrach) neighborhood of Jerusalem.

When approached Hawala said "Likud - Bibi, the king of Israel!"

I guess he has found his place in Israel...