Former Hezbollah supporter embraces Israel and converts to Judaism

Rawan Osman’s hostility towards Israel was just part and parcel of growing up in Lebanon, but her views were uncomfortably challenged, and then ultimately took a 180-degree turn after a life-altering season in France. 

Osman went to Strasbourg back in 2011 to gain business acumen, pursuing her dream to open a wine bar. It was there that she met Jewish people for the first time in her life and came face to face with the falsehoods in her own antisemitic beliefs. 

She had been raised to believe Jews were the enemy, even monsters, and experienced a panic attack when realizing she’d accidentally ended up living in the Jewish quarter. However, her experiences in the weeks and months that followed led her to become an outspoken peace activist, challenging antisemitism in the Arab world.

Now based in Germany, she regularly goes back to Strasbourg. “There, I lived in the Jewish quarter and slowly realized that the Jews are normal people, that they are not 'enemies,'" Osman wrote on Instagram. “Every year, I celebrate my birthday there, to express my gratitude and to celebrate the city that opened my eyes.”

In an interview with Ynet News, Osman relayed how she had been drip-fed views that demonized Israel. "I was a fan of Hezbollah. I believed the narrative the state wanted us to learn about Israel and the Jews," she shared. "I'd never spoken to a Jew until I moved to France."

Osman admits the transformation from Syrian-Lebanese antisemite to Israel-loving peace activist took a great deal of time. "It sounds as if it happened overnight, but that was a long journey," she said. "Slowly, after years of reading about Israel and Jewish history, I became a proud Zionist activist. And after October 7, that event changed my life."

For many, Oct. 7, 2023, was a pivotal moment. For Osman, after a decade of advocating for the Jewish people, it triggered the decision to convert to Judaism. 

"I still have many family members and friends in Lebanon and Syria. Most of them blocked me right after October 7 when I made a public statement condemning Hamas and supporting Israel," she said. "Many out of fear, but many just because they are antisemites, as I was until my mid-twenties."

After many years of learning about Israel, visiting Auschwitz, and gaining insight into the suffering of the Jewish people, she was staggered to see how the world responded to the horrific Hamas attack. She has been distraught to see how many Muslims still support the terror group.

"I don't understand how anyone can buy their narrative," she said. "I just read this morning – like many around the world, we don’t want to believe the Bibas family was killed. They are monsters, and learning that the aggressor is your own side, not Israel, is a harsh realization. I'm trying desperately to get Arabs to understand that they are intensely brainwashed."

For Osman, there is no equivocating. "Every day, it becomes clearer that the enemy of the people in the region is not Israel, but the so-called 'Axis of Resistance' led by Iran or by the Iranian regime.”

Wanting to make the distinction between the regime and the people of Iran, she added, “The Iranian people are awesome and they deserve better."

Now an unashamed and vocal Zionist, Osman has become a target of hate and regularly receives death threats. There is a criminal investigator in Germany to whom she can pass the threats on directly, but she doesn’t always bother to report them. “As they say, 'A dog that barks rarely bites,'” she said. “Those who want to kill me won’t inform me in advance." 

She draws courage and strength from her conviction that she’s doing the right thing. "I have to be careful where I'm invited to speak publicly. We have heavy security, but I truly believe I'm doing the right thing, so it doesn’t bother me at all," she said.

Working with fellow peace activist, Rabbi Raphael Shore, author of 'Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Jews', Osman will star in his new documentary, 'Tragic Awakening' which explores the roots and reasons of antisemitism. Shore has his own theories about what drives the antisemitism we see skyrocketing today, saying, “There's something bothering them, bothering antisemites, including much of the Islamist world today about the Jewish people. And it's deep down and it's even progressive liberals today. It's bothering them about the Jews and they label it anything.”

Some have suggested to Osman that her voice as a Lebanese Arab is more powerful than it might be if she converted to Judaism, but she takes Shore’s stance that the best thing to do in the face of antisemitism is to be steadfastly Jewish.

"Converting to Judaism is not my dirty secret,” she says, adding, “there's nothing to be ashamed of. It's something I'm proud of and I'd like the Jews to understand that it is something you should be proud of. There's nothing wrong with you and everything wrong with the world."

Osman believes, from her own experience, that personal encounters are the best remedy to bring peace, saying, “You might not be able to visit Lebanon or Syria yet, however, you are able to meet Syrians and Lebanese on neutral ground wherever fate chooses. When it happens, don’t retreat out of despair or mistrust. Engage them and change their mind about Israel, like the shopkeeper in Strasbourg changed mine. All he had to do was to smile.”

"Many Arab countries have anti-normalization laws and policies forbidding people-to-people contact," she says. "Arab citizens, including Lebanese, are afraid of communicating with Israelis because of these laws, even abroad when they are on holiday. But thanks to social media, the Jews can reclaim their space, reclaim their voices and communicate their narrative, exposing the lies told for very long in the Arab world."