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Nov 23, 1994 In a courtroom rife with rancorous passion, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi was sentenced yesterday to 4 to 12 years in prison for kidnapping a Jewish teen-ager who disappeared from his family for two years. Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, the leader of a small Hasidic sect, was given the prison term after he declared fervently that he was the victim of the kind of "blood libel" that had "cost the lives of millions," and after the youth's mother spoke with equal intensity about losing her son to "people who control his mind." Continue reading: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/23/nyregion/rabbi-given-prison-term-in-kidnapping-of-teen-ager.html

Nine members of the fringe Haredi Orthodox Lev Tahor sect who fled Canada last week were returned to the country. On Saturday night, Toronto-area police and children’s aid officials greeted the plane carrying three Lev Tahor adults and six children from Trinidad and Tobago. The children were placed in the custody of Chatham-Kent Children’s Services, located about a three-hour drive southwest of Toronto, while border agents processed the adults, according to the Toronto Star. Continue reading: https://www.timesofisrael.com/fleeing-lev-tahor-sect-members-returned-to-canada/

Uriel Goldman, spokesperson for the fundamentalist Jewish group Lev Tahor speaks in in Chatham, Ontario on November 28, 2013.

There is a small, tight-knit and strict community of Jews currently in Canada who call themselves “Lev Tahor,” which means “pure heart.” The group is also known by the nickname “the Jewish Taliban.” This sect is considered an extremist group even by haredi standards. Probably a short hand way to explain that is the women members wear clothing that resemble burkas. The group has about 200 members. It is anti-Zionist and has been residing in Quebec, near Montreal, for the past ten years. However, there have been difficulties between the Canadian authorities and the Lev Tahor sect, primarily over the issues of educating their youth. In addition, there are ongoing child welfare investigations prompted by outsiders or relatives of the sect members who allege the children don’t have proper hygiene, are neglected and suffer from psychological abuse. There are also rumors of forced marriages. Continue reading: https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-taliban-ordered-to-return-to-quebec/2013/11/27/

Members of the Lev Tahor community of about 200 people -- about half of them children- were under investigation by social services in Quebec for a host of issues including hygiene, children's health and allegations that the children weren't learning according the Quebec curriculum.

In a precedent-setting move, an Israeli court is expected to decide next week whether it is legal to belong to the extreme ultra-Orthodox group Lev Tahor, known as "the Taliban sect." A decision reached this week by a family court in Rishon Letzion indicates that a ruling on Lev Tahor's legality is imminent. The decision follows what appears to be the conclusion of an international family drama involving two sisters from Beit Shemesh who belong to the Taliban sect. The two were forcibly returned to Israel on Sunday under an order issued by the court. The sisters, 13 and 15, were en route to a Lev Tahor village located on the outskirts of Montreal, Canada. Continue reading: https://www.haaretz.com/2011-10-05/ty-article/court-to-rule-on-legality-of-israeli-ultra-orthodox-taliban-sect/0000017f-db31-db5a-a57f-db7b07ea0001

Even after a story airs on television, the fifth estate does not stop investigating. In our season finale 'After the Cameras Went Away', Gillian Findlay reveals the latest on the controversial religious sect Lev Tahor.

A mother in the Lev Tahor community who is the subject of a child protection proceeding sent a letter to media outlets Friday afternoon decrying the actions of Chatham-Kent Children's Services and calling out for help.

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish community that fled Quebec for Ontario amid an investigation into alleged child neglect says it's being targeted by authorities for its religious practices.

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/

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

Federal prosecutors are examining whether state officials gave lenient treatment to a Hasidic rabbi imprisoned in a widely publicized kidnapping case after appeals were made on his behalf by a fund-raiser for the campaign of Gov. George E. Pataki, officials and others involved in the inquiry say. State records show that prison officials moved the rabbi, Shlomo Helbrans, from prison into a work-release program even though he was ineligible for the transfer because Federal immigration officials wanted to deport him. The transfer in June 1996 was rescinded after a Federal prosecutor who had brought charges against Rabbi Helbrans protested to state prison officials. Continue reading (requires NYTimes subscription): https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/26/nyregion/us-asks-whether-leniency-for-rabbi-had-link-to-a-pataki-backer.html