Born Muslim, converted to Judaism and fighting for residency
Mark Halawa was born in Kuwait and lived in Jordan and Syria, but after learning that he is Jewish, he came to Jerusalem to study in a Talmudic college. Now, even after advocating for Israel around the world, Israel's Chief Rabbinate doesn't acknowledge his conversion and the state is denying him citizenship.
As a Kuwaiti Muslim by origin, 39-year-old Mark Halawa's wish is to just be a regular Jewish Israeli citizen. Yet that, he found out, is much more difficult to achieve than he initially thought.
After completing his conversion to Judaism in Rabbi Nissim Karelitz's rabbinical court in Bnei Brak, Halawa knew that he only needed the Chief Rabbinate to officiate it—only to find out that it doesn't acknowledge the rabbinical court where he converted.
But that was not the end of his troubles. As he got the bad news about his conversions, he found out that the Ministry of the Interior did not authorize his Israeli citizenship, a problem he contends with to this day.
Halawa's amazing story was first told by Ynet almost three years ago. Born to a secular Muslim family in Kuwait, he found out at a young age that his grandmother was a Jew that converted to Islam after marrying a Palestinian.
After Iraq invaded to Kuwait when he was 13, he immigrated with his family to Jordan. There he started being exposed to Israeli television broadcasts, and thus began to separate himself from his prejudices and his anti-Semitic early education.
In the mid-nineties, His family moved to Canada. For Halawa, it was a golden opportunity to put everything behind him and start afresh. "I wanted to forget about the Middle East," he said in his Jerusalem apartment with a yamaka on his head. His father, though, had other plans for him, and that is how he found himself being sent to study in Syria. "I lived there for two years, it's a horrible dictatorship."
But the moment that marked Halawa’s official shift took place after he finally immigrated to Canada, during a chance meeting at his university’s library in Ontario. Halawa found himself telling the Jewish man he met, Dr. Yitzchok Block, a Harvard professor of philosophy and Chabad rabbi who taught at the University of Western Ontario, all about his family’s background.
After understanding that his grandmother on his mother's side was Jewish, the rabbi told him that according to Jewish law, he is considered Jewish.
"I was shocked to discover that I was Jewish," Halawa said. "You go to sleep with the knowledge that you're Jewish, and you wake up with it. What the rabbi told me made me love Jews more."
Afterwards, he decided to confront his Jewish heritage instead of avoiding it. He soon found himself boarding a plane to Israel. "I fell in love, and every day I discovered something new on my journey here," he excitedly said.
After that visit, Halawa returned to Israel, this time to study in a Talmudic college.
Halawa delved into his Jewish studies, but another surprise was in store for him: meeting the women he would decide to spend the rest of his life with.
"I met Linda, who came from a background similar to mine," he said. "Well, she didn't come from Kuwait, but from Finland. I decided that I wanted to share my life with her."
In order to do that, he needed to convert. At the same time, he began advocacy efforts for Israel and held lectures around the world.
As mentioned, his successfully finished his conversion in the Bnei Brak rabbinical court. "They told me 'Mazal Tov, you're as Jewish as the rest of us now."
However, Israel's Chief Rabbinate refused to acknowledge his conversion, and Halawa soon started to feel that his years of hard work and effort came to nothing. "It was the most horrible day of my life. I left the place in tears," he told.
The wedding preparations were at hand, and Halawa decided not to postpone it. Here too, joy quickly turned to sorrow. After requesting to become a legal resident at the Ministry of the Interior, things started becoming aggravatingly difficult. For a while he was forbidden from staying in Israel, so he had to meet with his wife in Europe.
Absurdly, the man who never stopped praising Israel abroad faced insurmountable barriers in Israel. Though, in the meantime, some good happened: Mark and Linda became parents.
Yoav Bakshi Yeivin, Jerusalem City Council member and member of the 'Wake up Jerusalem' movement, is trying to assist Halawa's efforts of becoming an Israeli citizen. "I cannot understand how such a dedicated person, who tries to improve Israel's name in the world, does not receive citizenship after converting," says Yeivin.
After speaking to many ministers and MK's, Yeivin managed to get Halawa an "upgrade" to his status. "Mark is a Jew and an Israeli much more than most and right now all we managed to get him is temporary residency because he didn't convert through the Chief Rabbinate," Yeivin bitterly said.
"I almost gave up," Halawa confessed, holding his temporary resident certificate. "I love Israel very much, but many times it seemed to not love me back. My wife told me that it's going to be a long struggle, but I'll persevere."
The Ministry of the Interior responded: "In general, following a High Court decision, we cannot acknowledge his conversion if he stayed illegally in Israel during his conversion process, which he did.
"And so, we decided to reject his request for residency based on his conversion. Nonetheless, about a year ago Mr. Halawa started the process of becoming a citizen through his marriage to an Israeli citizen and even received temporary resident status."
