Life in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Lev Tahor is supposed to be simple: the rules for dress, diet, schooling, marriage and worship are clearly defined and closely followed. But last November, in the middle of the night, about 200 members of the sect fled their homes in Quebec to start a new community in Chatham, Ontario, amid allegations of child neglect. Now the sect is fighting to keep more than a dozen children that a Quebec court ordered removed from their families. Recently released search warrants show Quebec provincial police have been investigating allegations of unlawful confinement and physical abuse of children within the sect, as well as marriage of underage girls to much older men.
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Is Shlomo Helbrans, the leader of Lev Tahor, a con man who uses every trick in the book to support himself and bolster his role of spiritual leader for his followers? Or is he a self-delusional quack who has a charismatic gift for sharing his delusion with others? JLBC has already exposed this man for kidnapping a child from New Milford, NJ in 1992, for which he served jail time, and which also triggered subsequent events, putting young frum children at great risk. Yet, somehow, Helbrans and his trusted aides have managed to amass millions of dollars in property and funds from the big-hearted and unwary public, and also from such renowned organizations as the Davidowitz Family Foundation. The group presents a picture of destitution to the unwary and believes that its staged performances for the media of observance of secular laws are taken seriously. They are even supported by the editors of Ami Magazine in Brooklyn.
The ultra-orthodox Jewish community of Lev Tahor is fighting to keep their children amid allegations from youth protection officers that the sect is a dangerous and controlling environment, where girls are married off underage, people are brainwashed and physically abused.
In November, the group left Quebec ahead of a court hearing that would eventually order the temporary removal of 14 children. The sect loaded all families with children under 18 into three buses and, in the dead of night, drove for over 12 hours to Chatham-Kent, Ontario.
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