Lev Tahor cult defies court order removing children

Fourteen children from the Lev Tahor cult ordered to foster care are still living with the contentious Jewish group led by Israeli convict Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, the Toronto Star reported.

On November 27, Quebec Judge Pierre Hamel ruled the children were in “extreme danger” and should be removed from their homes.

The sect fled the small resort town of Ste-Agathe-du-Mont, Quebec, just days before the hearing. The families currently remain intact in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, where the more than 200-strong group is renting properties while it looks to purchase.

Continue reading: https://www.timesofisrael.com/lev-tahor-cult-defies-court-order-removing-children/

Lev Tahor. Pure of Heart. Does the Name Helbrans Ring a Bell?

New Milford, NJ—If the name Shlomo Helbrans rings a bell with some JLBC readers, it should. He has lately been in the news because of his Lev Tahor cult—with its burqa-clad women and accusations of child abuse by the Canadian authorities in Quebec. This is not Helbrans’ first serious brush with the law. He gained his notoriety in Bergen County when he kidnapped a bar-mitzvah aged boy from his secular Israeli parents in New Milford in 1992. It was a sensational story and is one of the cases that Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes is alleged to have soft-pedaled. It also inspired a book published in 2001 called THE ZADDIK: The Battle for a Boy’s Soul by Elaine Grudin Denholtz.

Continue reading at https://jewishlink.news/world-us/2163-lev-tahor-pure-of-heart-does-the-name-helbrans-ring-a-bell

Ultra Orthodox Sect Lev Tahor Facing Religious Persecution

Members of the Jewish Ultra Orthodox sect Lev Tahor in Canada respond to allegations of physical abuse of kids, child marriages, and more.