The Amazing Story of Fuad: A Lebanese Teen Who Converted and Joined the Golani Brigade

At just 19 years old, Guy Rizk is completing his training at the Golani Brigade's training base. The fact that he is moved when he talks about Israel is not something to be taken for granted. Rizk was born in Lebanon as a Christian under the name Fuad. In May 2000, when the IDF finally withdrew from southern Lebanon, at just a year and a half old, he arrived in Israel. Israelis called him an Arab, Arabs called him a traitor. He celebrated Christmas at church and Passover with his Jewish friends, all while aspiring to declare himself a Jew. Rizk is now completing his conversion process. Fuad became Guy, and today he proudly defines himself as a "proud Zionist Jew, at last."

Rizk's extraordinary story was published in "Israel Hayom." Today, just before he becomes a Jew officially, he fights under heavy fire in one of the IDF's esteemed units. "There is no safer place than the State of Israel. People have fought with their blood to get here, and what angers me the most is when Israelis complain about the country and think there's a better place for them to live," he says in an interview. "Abroad, they don't speak Hebrew for fear of being harmed. Here, there's no fear; here, you feel like you belong."

His love for the Jewish people, he says, was instilled in him from birth by his father Michel, 53, a chief electrician at a plastic factory in Karmiel, and his mother Sonia, an assistant in the special education system at the "Karmim" school in the city. The connection was made three decades ago. Michel joined the South Lebanon Army, which collaborated with the IDF against Hezbollah. They lived in the village of Qalaya, in the Marjayoun District of southern Lebanon, just ten kilometers from the northern border. His father's decision to join the SLA was meant to ensure a peaceful life but forced him to flee southern Lebanon overnight, leaving all his possessions behind.

"In the conversion process, which lasted three and a half months, we were instilled with Jewish heritage and legacy. Later, we also learned about the religion, kashrut, and prayers, and we needed to observe Shabbat as required," Rizk says in an interview with the newspaper. "Today, I observe Shabbat, don't travel, don't light a fire. When I come home for the weekend from the army, my mom prepares all the food in advance and puts it on a hotplate. When I wrap myself in a tallit, I connect with my inner self, and it makes me feel good. For the first time, I feel that my body and soul are in the right place together."

"I was a major and served as an artillery company commander," his father recalls his days in the SLA. "I had just finished building a big house that we planned to move into. I had three small children then. Nathaniel, who was then known as George, was 8. Mayan, then Manuela, was 5. And Guy, then called Fuad, was an infant of 18 months. News of the IDF's withdrawal from Lebanon came on the night between May 22 and 23, 2000. We were told to deplete our ammunition so that nothing was left for Hezbollah, as the SLA would cease to exist by the next day." In an instant, Michel found himself transformed from a respected officer to a penniless refugee alongside a wife and three children. When Fuad cried out of hunger, an IDF soldier passing by noticed the family's plight and gave him a bottle of milk. They then moved to a hotel in Safed. Michel worked for a renovation contractor, moved to Karmiel, and from there, integration with Jewish friends was only natural.

Guy says today that he suffered more than his siblings did due to harassment because of his origins. "In my early years in Israel, the public didn't know what the SLA was. I was in a Jewish kindergarten, and there they called me a 'stinking Arab.' The Arab population in Karmiel saw us as traitors, and I even remember once when we went to church and found our car vandalized with broken windows and slashed tires," he says. "The name Fuad marked me as an Arab, and as a child, dealing with all the questions about who and what I was wasn’t easy. I remember that every time I answered the question about my name, they immediately asked if I was Arab. In the beginning, I didn’t know how to explain who I was. As a result, I ended up fighting a lot." Over the years, Fuad changed his name to Guy. The name Fuad was given to him by his father in memory of an uncle who was killed in Lebanon. "I won't lie; it wasn’t easy to give up my brother’s name, but I knew how much Guy was suffering, so it was clear to me that for my children, I am willing to sacrifice everything," recalls the father. "When he changed his name, I saw how much good it did him, and I was happy."

Changing the name was the first step in the process. His older brother George, who was about to join the army, decided to change his name to Nathaniel and began a conversion process. "When Nathaniel started his conversion, we stopped celebrating Christian holidays, and the house gradually became more and more Jewish," Guy recalls. "If in the past friends would come over and couldn't eat anything because it wasn’t kosher, that changed. Initially, there were photos of Jesus and crosses at home, but when my brother started converting and we moved to a new house, my father called a rabbi who performed a religious ceremony to affix a mezuzah. My mother removed all symbols of Christianity from the walls so that we could feel good about ourselves and our choices. Even Maayan’s decision to start converting solidified the fact that Judaism had become part of us."

Later, Guy attended "Karmim" high school in Karmiel under his new name. In April 2017, after graduating high school with a full matriculation in computer science, he enlisted in the Golani Brigade and began his conversion process. The option to get an exemption never crossed his mind. "The two most certain things in my life that I knew from an early age were that I would convert at 18 and that I would enlist in the Golani Brigade. Both my brother and sister served in Golani. My brother Nathaniel served as a sergeant in Battalion 13, and my sister Maayan in Battalion Headquarters 12. It became a family tradition. So much so, if I had enlisted in the Paratroopers, they probably wouldn't have let me into the house."

"The only thing I regret is not being able to convert at 13 and celebrate a Bar Mitzvah like all my friends," Rizk concludes. "I feel it's missing in my life. I've celebrated many Bar Mitzvahs with friends and always envied them. But maybe in the future, I'll still have one, just to feel even more complete."