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The villagers in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala, did not know what to make of it when the devout newcomers appeared, the men in long black coats, the women and girls in dark chadors despite the tropical heat. Their arrival sparked fear among some people in the indigenous community, who were taken aback by their clothing, customs and Yiddish speech. “There were even people who believed that their presence signalled the second coming of Christ,” Salvador Loarca, an assistant attorney in the local human rights office, said in a telephone interview last week. In fact, what appears to be occurring in the lakeside region about 80 kilometres west of the capital Guatemala City is the latest coming of the nomadic, ultra-orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor. Founded by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans in Jerusalem in the 1980s, the group spent close to a decade in New York state and more than a decade in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que., before fleeing to Chatham, Ont., in the middle of the night last fall as Quebec child-protection authorities prepared to intervene. Continue reading at https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/lev-tahor-sect-starts-new-life-in-guatemala-after-fleeing-child-neglect-allegations-in-ontario-and-quebec

BUENOS AIRES — Indigenous residents of San Juan La Laguna, a small town of under 10,000 in the Guatemalan state of Sololá, have asked members of the Jewish community — comprising 10 ultra-Orthodox families, most of whom arrived only recently — to identify themselves in a municipal registry and leave within the next few months. The registry was established to verify whether immigrants from the Jewish community are legally in the country and where they are from, information which has not been asked of other foreigners granted temporary visas. “We, as a local authority, have nothing against the Jewish community,” city mayor Rodolfo López told The Times of Israel on Tuesday. “But every community, and especially ours, as indigenous Mayans, has very special customs and traditions and we have to defend our rights.” Continue reading at https://www.timesofisrael.com/is-a-small-guatemalan-town-expelling-its-jews/

NEW YORK -- The father of a missing New Jersey teenager allegedly kidnapped by a Brooklyn rabbi and his wife collapsed in court Tuesday after a judge set bail for a third suspect who had only surrendered hours earlier. The suspect, Mordechai Weisz, 19, had been a fugitive since a warrant was issued for his arrest last Friday. He surrendered to Brooklyn prosecutors at 7 a.m., hours before he and his yeshiva teacher, Rabbi Schlomo Helbrans, and Helbrans' wife, Malka, were arraigned on kidnapping and conspiracy charges in the disappearance 10 months ago of Shai Fihma, 14, of Ramsey, N.J. Continue reading at https://www.upi.com/Archives/1993/02/16/Father-collapses-at-arraignment-in-Hasidic-kidnap-case/6204729838800/

Charles J. Hynes, having once embraced silence on the question of his vigor in prosecuting sex abuse in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, cannot stop talking now. In columns, in interviews, and even in an exchange with former Mayor Edward I. Koch, Mr. Hynes, the veteran district attorney in Brooklyn, has insisted that he is one tough prosecutor. He will handcuff and arrest anyone who tries to intimidate an ultra-Orthodox family into silence. “I will not put victims at risk,” he told The Forward. If he allows ultra-Orthodox rabbis to act as gatekeepers, determining which child was and was not molested before turning to prosecutors, and if he agrees to keep secret the names of the molesters, who could argue with the results? Since 2009, he says, his office has prosecuted 99 sex abuse cases in the ultra-Orthodox community. (When my colleagues Sharon Otterman and Ray Rivera diced Mr. Hynes’s numbers in a series of articles, they found at least one quarter of his prosecutions had little to do with child sex abuse.) Continue reading at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/nyregion/charles-hynes-appeared-to-block-1994-kidnapping-case.html?_r=2&ref=nyregion&

Yoil Weingarten, a member of the ultra-orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor, defends his community and accuses Israel of being behind the persecution of his community. Weingarten also responds to the allegation of neglect, and poor hygiene. Video shot outside his home in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, 100 kilometres north of Montreal, on Tuesday, November 26, 2013. Over 200 members of the sect, which is led by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, left their homes in Quebec for Ontario amid allegations of neglect by youth protection services. The group claims that they were leaving because of harsh youth protection and education laws. (Dario Ayala / THE GAZETTE)

Amnon Levi interviews Aryeh Laver, a 21-year-old Israeli whose mother joined the extreme Jewish group, Lev Tahor, then living in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, Canada. According to accounts of former members, the group practices underage marriage, corporal punishment, semi-starvation, and mind control with psychiatric medication. The show aired in November, 2012. Since the show aired, five children of an ex-member have been removed. On November 27, 2013, Montreal judge Pierre Hamel ruled that 14 additional children should also be removed. In advance of the ruling, the group moved to Chatham-Kent, Ontario, claiming that they were being forced to teach subjects that conflict with their religious beliefs. Ontario has not upheld the Quebec ruling but a hearing is scheduled for January 10, 2014

Quebec officials are looking to take steps to prevent 127 children from within the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, Lev Tahor from leaving Canada. Denis Barabay with the Quebec youth protection agency is trying to spearhead the initiative after 12 Lev Tahor children and their parents fled the country. Barabay fears the remaining community members in Chatham-Kent will leave soon, too. Continue reading: https://windsor.ctvnews.ca/quebec-officials-want-to-prevent-remaining-lev-tahor-children-from-leaving-canada-1.1719687

Haaretz spent five days with the controversial 'Lev Tahor' Haredi community in Canada to uncover the truth about the sect and its charismatic head, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans. Part one of a two-part series. Continue reading (subscription required): https://www.haaretz.com/2012-03-09/ty-article/pure-as-the-driven-snow/0000017f-dbc7-d3ff-a7ff-fbe74a1b0001

Three adult members of the fringe ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor sect and six children were stopped in Trinidad and Tobago; the children are now with child-welfare services in Ontario. Continue reading (subscription required): https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-03-10/ty-article/jewish-taliban-members-back-in-canada/0000017f-f43a-dc28-a17f-fc3f44880000

The timing for the hasty flight, days before the child welfare hearing where a Quebec judge ordered the removal of 14 children to foster care, has generated speculation the sect was aware of the impending judgment. The group has since defied the foster care order and a hearing is set for December 23 to decide jurisdiction now that the children are in Ontario. Two additional children, whose identities are protected by the Canadian Child and Welfare Services Act, were removed earlier this week, though quickly reunited with their families under terms that include mental health treatment for the parents, reports the Toronto Star. Continue reading: https://www.timesofisrael.com/child-abuse-allegations-are-lies-taliban-style-hasidic-sect-insists/

MP for Chatham-Kent-Essex Dave Van Kesteren says politicians have been in touch with the local police force to discuss ways of dealing with Lev Tahor members who have fled the country. “We have laws in this country and if laws are broken then the consequences are going to be felt, but at this point nothing has been charged yet, so I’m somewhat concerned about that,” says Van Kesteren. “There’s been allegations, but no charges laid and I know this is a difficult time for that community.” Continue reading: https://blackburnnews.com/chatham/chatham-news/2014/03/31/lev-tahor-a-political-issue/ Photo by Ashton Patis

In the second part of Haaretz’s investigation into the Lev Tahor Hasidic cult in Canada, Shay Fogelman speaks to the group’s leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, about his prison time in America and the community’s attitude to underage marriage, to a young man who managed to leave the religious extremists and to a mother who defend their hard-line way of life. Continue reading (subscription required): https://www.haaretz.com/2012-03-16/ty-article/when-youre-on-the-path-of-truth-you-dont-care-what-others-say/0000017f-dc69-d3ff-a7ff-fde9eca20000