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
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