THE SAGA CONTINUES: “Lebanese Chosson” Says He Has Undergone “Giyur Lechumrah,” Rov Who Saw the Geirus Speaks Out

Eliyahu Haliwa, who turned out to be a Lebanese Muslim after marrying a frum Syrian girl from Brooklyn, NY, now says that he has undergone a “giyur lechumrah” and is a full-fledged Jew.

Haliwa’s story was first reported on extensively by Matzav.com as the story unfolded,

Matzav.com learned that Haliwa was supposed to appear on the Motzoei Shabbos radio show last night of broadcaster Zev Brenner on the Talk Line Communications Network. At the last second, however, Haliwa backed out. Instead, a brief statement from him appeared on the show, with him stating that “I’m a full-fledged Jew, with my mother and grandmother being Jewish,

but I had to go through a giyur lechumrah nevertheless.”

For the time being, he said, “I’m respecting my wife’s wish, who requested that I not appear” on the radio show “in back and forth dialogue with listeners,” so “I unfortunately won’t be able to address them on the program tonight.”

Instead, the show featured Rabbi Avrohom Reich, founder of Kehillas Hatzolas Yisroel, one of the first kiruv organizations in Brooklyn for Russian Jews, which he founded in 1990. Witnessing the dire needs of the Russian refugee community, Rabbi Reich took it upon himself to help get their children into Jewish schools and launch adult educational programming.

Rabbi Reich, Haliwa said in his message, “was gracious enough to be on the radio” to talk about the geirus and “how my status got confirmed.”

“So please accept my apologies,” said Haliwa, “but I do look forward to doing so at a later time, at a later date.”

Rabbi Reich said that he first got to know Haliwa approximately a year ago, after his much publicized wedding.

Rabbi Reich related that he contacted Haliwa’s mother, who lives in Texas, and, speaking “meisiach lefi tumo” – a halachic term that means casually discussed or innocently related – she said that from when Eliyahu was 9 years old, he had this urge to be Jewish, and she knows from her mother and from her mother’s mother that they are Jewish.

“I asked if she can make a statement and have it notarized, which she did,” said Rabbi Reich.

Rabbi Reich, an alumnus of Telshe Yeshiva in Chicago, said that his congregation, which was on 44^th Street, between 9^th and 10^th Avenues, in Brooklyn, is located across from Hamaspik, which has elderly adults there, and they hire people to assist the elders with their needs. Haliwa and his wife were selected to service this Hamaspik home. [Matzav.com]

Haliwa himself participated in shiurim delivered by Rabbi Reich, who said that he was “impressed by how Eliyahu davened” and they formed a kesher. But then, they lost contact with each other.

Later, Rabbi Reich heard about the whole story and the claims that Haliwa “was a goy who fooled everyone.”

“I usually don’t get fooled,” said Rabbi Reich. “It didn’t sound right.”

One of Rabbi Reich’s talmidim met Haliwa and brought him over to Rabbi Reich’s shul, “and I started to see who he was,” said Rabbi Reich.

“Being in the work of kiruv for so many years, for more than 50 years…,” Rabbi Reich said, he felt that the claims besmirching Haliwa were not correct and that he had to help Haliwa, not pushing him away, like others were doing.

But the million dollar question remains: Why didn’t Haliwa mention to his kallah or anyone else at the time of the tumult that his mother and grandmother were, in fact, Jewish?

“You’re asking a very good question,” Rabbi Reich said to Brenner, “but when someone is being attacked by so many people…he did not get proper guidance of how to tackle this, but a fact is a fact.” [Matzav.com]

Rabbi Reich later added that “According to Rav Moshe Feinstein and Chacham Ovadiah Yosef, if your mother or grandmother tells you that you’re Jewish, you don’t need a geirus.”

However, Rabbi Reich explained, if there are 4 generations that haven’t observed mitzvos, a geirus is performed, which is what happened here. Hence, Haliwa’s geirus being called a “geirus lechumrah.”

Rabbi Reich commented that he was not actually on the bais din that performed the geirus, but that he witnessed the geirus from beginning to end.

Rabbi Reich said that it was a “very choshuve bais din” of elderly dayanim.

“It’s not necessary for anyone to know” who the bais din members are, said Rabbi Reich, “but right now, because there’s so much politics,” they’d rather keep their identities “covered,” or unknown, for the immediate future. He said that the geirus is recognized by the Rabbanut in Israel.

Rabbi Reich added that he tried to reach out to Syrian rabbis to discuss the Haliwa matter. He called and texted them, saying that he wanted guidance, but they refused to call him back. He also tried to send a younger rov in the Syrian community as a messenger, but the man refused to talk to Rabbi Reich about it.

Next question: Is Haliwa still considered married to his wife?

“Halachically, we have to go lechumrah and say that they’re married,” said Rabbi Reich, so if they don’t stay together, she would need a get lechumrah.”

Rabbi Reich stands by his defense of Haliwa as a ger tzedek. “He’s a lev tov and very serious in his Yiddishkeit,” said Rabbi Reich, who added that people in the Syrian community who know Haliwa said that he’s a “great person as far as his dikduk b’mitzvos.”

Rabbi Reich said that he spoke to the kallah, who was concerned about the fact that Haliwa had lied about his lineage. Rabbi Reich explained to her that while he indeed lied, and it was completely wrong of him to do so, he was not trying to deceive anyone per se, but that he was simply afraid of the backlash were he to reveal the full details of his background.

Now that Haliwa is a bona fide ger, said Rabbi Reich, “Chas veshalom for someone to be metza’er (cause pain to) him.”

{Matzav.com}