Search Results

Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor appear to be migrating to the Central American country of Guatemala, according to several sources close to the group. A group of eight — two adults and six of their eight children — relocated to Guatemala in early March, ahead of a court date in Chatham-Kent, Ont., that would have determined whether the children would be placed in foster care. Although their trip was in violation of court orders to remain in Canada, they were granted temporary refuge in Guatemala for up to 90 days. Now that original group has swelled to about 30, all living in a rural lakeside community. The family’s two eldest daughters are living with a foster family in Toronto. They were apprehended with another group that tried to flee Canada at the same time. Continue reading at https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/lev-tahor-members-migrating-to-guatemala-family-member-says

Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor fled the country this week with 13 children, days before they were to have appealed a judgement ordering them into foster care. The children, ranging in age from six months to 15 years, were to having appeared in court Wednesday in Chatham-Kent, Ont., to appeal a Feb 3 order validating a Nov. 27 Quebec court ruling that the children be removed from the community and placed in foster care. That ruling was made after most members of the community had already left their Ste-Agathe-des-Monts homes for Chatham-Kent. Continue reading at https://www.pressreader.com/canada/montreal-gazette/20140308/281578058593888

Two families from 'Jewish Taliban' sect, said to abuse children, flee Canada to central American country. Continue reading (subscription required): https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-03-18/ty-article/lev-tahor-can-stay-in-guatemala/0000017f-f00b-da6f-a77f-f80fab280000

A rabbi who served two years in prison for kidnapping is fighting to retain refugee status in Canada, claiming that he has a “well-founded fear of persecution” if forced to return to Israel. In 1994 an American court in Brooklyn, N.Y., convicted Rabbi Erez Shlomo Elbarnes, 41, for kidnapping a 13-year-old boy. The child’s mother had enrolled him in Elbarnes’s yeshiva for bar mitzvah lessons. Continue reading: https://forward.com/news/5245/convicted-of-kidnapping-rabbi-faces-deportation/

A Lev Tahor couple was "very happy and relieved" Wednesday when a temporary order on consent between them and the local children's services agency will allow them to be reunited with their four children. But Marnelle Dragila, counsel for the parents, would not divulge conditions of the order, which goes into effect on Thursday. Continue reading: https://ottawasun.com/2014/05/07/lev-tahor-family-hopes-to-be-reunited-with-4-children-in-foster-care Webarchive: https://web.archive.org/web/20140519131511/http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/canada/archives/2014/05/20140507-120654.html

PANAJACHEL, GUATEMALA—Finding people is one of the toughest parts of a journalist’s job. When I was given the task of finding six Lev Tahor children hiding out in Guatemala, a country of 15 million people, with vast highlands that are easy to disappear in, it seemed impossible. When I hit the ground in Guatemala Tuesday, I immediately met with a local rabbi in my search for the children and their parents, who are members of the ultraorthodox Jewish sect. The Star’s Oakland Ross had helped me make contact with people who could help find translators. The rabbi, who spoke English, had little information on the whereabouts of the children, who are the subject of an emergency order calling for their return to Canada. The rabbi also said a local journalist spoke with a government source who said there was no record of their arrival. Continue reading at https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/03/15/lev_tahor_how_the_star_tracked_sect_members_hiding_out_in_guatemala.html

It is one o'clock in the afternoon, but it seems the electrical goods store in Rishon Lezion, where I arranged to meet the interviewees, is about to close: an iron shutter closes the entrance up to two-thirds of its length. I bend through the lower third and see them inside. The members of the families whose loved ones were sucked into the black hole of the "Pure Heart" sect are hiding, scared. "You don't know what you're getting into", they will tell me shortly. "Keep in mind that they can hurt anyone. Even you." Orit Cohen's relative is in the sect with his wife and six children. A relative of Oded Tweek is there with her seven children. Hali's family member (pseudonym) is in the sect with his four children. After the evidence of the acts of violence and abuse and the long hand of the cult leaders, I am beginning to fear. It seems that the only insurance certificate against harm to me, if indeed they are dangerous people as they are attributed, is to simply write about it. Continue reading at https://www-israelhayom-co-il.translate.goog/article/44923?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Read this article in Hebrew: https://www.israelhayom.co.il/article/44923

Recently, the Torah community has experienced what can be described as the “War of the Magazines.” Mishpacha Magazine ran a fifteen page “expose” a few weeks ago about a group that calls itself “Lev Tahor” led by a certain R. Shlomo Helbrans. The article essentially described “Lev Tahor” as a cult that has had some serious issues involving medicating children, and behaviors that resemble child abuse. The article explained that authorities in Canada are investigating Lev Tahor and have also placed some of the children in foster care pending the outcome of further investigation. A short while later, Ami Magazine ran an article that claimed the exact opposite truth. It claimed that there is no evidence at all of child abuse and that the movement is not, in fact, a cult. Continue reading: https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/229095/cults-and-the-war-of-the-jewish-magazines.html

MONTREAL — When Eluzor and Vita Moscowicz welcomed five young foster children into their home about six months ago, they were shocked by their appearance and demeanour. The kids, ranging from infancy to seven years old, had been entrusted to them by Quebec’s youth protection officials after they were removed from the controversial Lev Tahor chassidic sect, then based in Ste-Agathe des Monts, Que. Eluzor Moscowicz said the children were not clean and wore shoes that were so ill-fitting that they were not walking normally. Continue reading at https://thecjn.ca/news/foster-parent-ex-lev-tahor-kids-speaks/

Canadian child protective services intend to seek the removal of all 127 children from the fringe ultra-Orthodox Lev Tahor group, often referred to as the "Jewish Taliban," several local media outlets reported Thursday. A Canadian court earlier this month ordered the fringe sect to turn over as many as 13 of its children to authorities. But those children, along with several adult members of the community, fled the country to the Caribbean and Central America to avoid a court hearing that was scheduled for Wednesday, Global News Online reported. Continue reading: https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2014-03-07/ty-article/canada-seeking-custody-of-jewish-taliban-kids/0000017f-f7d3-d044-adff-f7fbb0e30000 Photo credit: Shaul Boyer, Haaretz

MONTREAL—They speak Yiddish, follow the Jewish law to the letter and they’ve been on standby for months, waiting to welcome into their homes the children of Lev Tahor, the ultra-orthodox sect at the centre of a two-province child abuse probe. Four months after child-welfare authorities in Quebec first went to court to have 14 children from two families taken into protective custody, the hassidic community of Montreal has been waiting to play its part. Foster families able to meet some of the exacting needs of the children — namely, speaking Yiddish and keeping a high degree of religious observance — have been located. Now they are waiting for the ruling of an Ontario court judge Monday that could send the children along Highway 401 from Chatham-Kent to the hassidic enclave of Outremont in central Montreal. Continue reading at https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/04/12/foster_families_have_been_ready_for_months_to_receive_lev_tahor_children.html

Nachman Helbrans, a member of the Jewish fundamentalist group, Lev Tahor, talks about the groups move from Quebec to Ontario amid a child neglect investigation, while at a motel in Windsor Ont., where they are temporarily staying.