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Quebec police search warrants have been issued in relation to allegations that members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect inflicted psychological and physical abuse on teenaged girls. The abuses allegedly took place in the Lev Tahor 'Jewish Taliban' sect that settled in Quebec and Ontario. Details of the warrants were made public following media requests. Prosecutors ordered that 14 children in the community be moved to temporary foster care because of allegations of neglect and abuse. About 200 members of the sect fled Quebec in November before the court order was executed. Continue reading: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/jewish-taliban-lev-tahor-sect-accused-sex-abuse-1436790

A Hasidic rabbi on parole in Rockland County after serving a prison term for kidnapping a teenager under his tutelage was deported to Israel yesterday, even as his conviction was being appealed, his lawyer said. The case of the rabbi, Shlomo Helbrans, has drawn widespread attention not only for the nature of the kidnapping charge, but also because of a federal investigation into whether his parole after two years in prison was the result of improper political influence on the Pataki administration. Continue reading (subscription required): https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/12/nyregion/rabbi-is-deported-5-years-after-conviction-lawyer-says.html

In an isolated snow-swept town near Windsor, Ontario, the controversial Lev Tahor community is struggling to hold itself together amid allegations of child abuse and other legal irregularities. The lonely collection of houses, the groups of women dressed in black burkas, the unflinching devotion to a leader seen as a direct link to G-d, the tightly controlled yet perfectly behaved children, the self-imposed isolation, the hours-long prayers, the teenaged brides, the rickety shelves lined with rows of vitamins — all paint a picture that captured headlines but still remains a mystery to most. Now the group, under the charismatic — and some say dictatorial — leadership of Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, is fighting to retain more than a dozen children that a Quebec court ordered removed from their families, due to charges of unlawful confinement and physical abuse. Rabbi Helbrans’s own wife Malka reportedly fled to Israel after allegedly being beaten by the rabbi’s followers when she took a public stand against child punishment tactics. Continue reading: https://mishpacha.com/hearts-of-darkness/

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

The Canada Border Services Agency carried out an operation on Wednesday with the police in the town of Chatham, in southwestern Ontario, where members of the Lev Tahor sect live. Six adults have been arrested in connection with violations of immigration laws, according to youth protection authorities. Two people are still wanted, according to the CBSA. Continue reading the article in its original French: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/660884/lev-tahor-descente-chatham Google translate: https://ici-radio--canada-ca.translate.goog/nouvelle/660884/lev-tahor-descente-chatham?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Quebec social services say they're investigating members of the group, known as Lev Tahor, for alleged child neglect. Some of the families were due to appear before a Quebec judge last week for a hearing to ensure child welfare officials had regular access to their children. But the group, which totals about 200 people, packed up and moved to Chatham. Continue reading: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/jewish-sect-lev-tahor-flees-quebec-amid-child-neglect-allegations-1.2438992 Photo credit: CBC

A conflict between a New York State prison regulation requiring that inmates be photographed clean-shaven and a religious belief that a man's beard must not be touched was resolved in Federal court yesterday through the latest computer technology. For the first time, New York State accepted a computer-generated image of what an inmate, in this case, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, would look like without a beard instead of making him shave for a conventional photograph. The state requires that a bearded inmate be photographedshaven so that he can be more easily identified if he escapes and shaves off his beard. Continue reading: https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/29/nyregion/computer-replaces-razor-for-rabbi-s-prison-picture.html

The leader of the fringe haredi Orthodox sect Lev Tahor may have used false evidence to gain refugee status in Canada, a Canadian documentary reported. Ottawa’s granting of refugee status to Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans was based in part on testimony paid for by the sect, a boy involved at the hearing told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. program “the fifth estate.” The documentary, which aired Friday, alleged that Shai Fima, the boy who was at the center of Helbrans’ 1996 kidnapping conviction in the United States, was paid $5,000 to appear on videotape at Helbrans’ hearing denying that he was kidnapped and saying the rabbi was being unfairly persecuted. Continue reading: https://www.jta.org/2014/03/02/global/report-lev-tahor-leader-lied-in-refugee-application-to-canada

Blog: They are not "Naturi Karta" as many tend to think that such an organization no longer exists. They hold the views of the Rebbe of Satmar but the followers of Satmar boycott them. Haim Beer writes: These are extremists who crossed the border when theology became pathology. For many years, every anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstration saw several Jews wearing shtreimel and wrapped in prayer shawls, carrying posters against Israel. This phenomenon was beautifully photographed in the reports of the television networks but did not arouse excitement - neither in Israel nor in the Jewish world. Continue reading at https://www-zeevgalili-com.translate.goog/2009/05/3520?_x_tr_sch=http&_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp Read this article in Hebrew: http://www.zeevgalili.com/2009/05/3520

The Lev Tahor family that left Canada for Guatemala in early March is allowed to stay there with no special conditions — for now. Uriel Goldman, the spokesman for the Lev Tahor group living in Chatham, Ont., confirmed Wednesday that the family no longer has to go to the Canadian embassy in Guatemala City as a condition of its stay in Central America. Continue reading: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/lev-tahor-members-in-guatemala-can-stay-up-to-3-months-1.2587033

Quebec Superior Court has denied the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor the right to appeal a decision rendered last November, which ordered 14 children be returned to Quebec to be placed in youth protection services. Justice Luc Lefebvre ruled that the 30-day period to file an appeal had not been respected, and therefore the judgement rendered could not longer be appealed under youth protection laws. Continue reading: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/lev-tahor-sect-denied-right-to-appeal-child-removal-order-1.2546996 Photo credit: Radio Canada

Three members of the haredi Orthodox sect Lev Tahor have been ordered deported to their native Israel. The three have been held in detention since April 2, when officials of the Canada Border Services Agency raided the Lev Tahor compound in Chatham, Ont., about three hours from Toronto, and arrested six sect members over suspected immigration issues. An official of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board ruled Friday that the three sect members with Israeli citizenship will remain in custody until they can be deported to Israel. Continue reading: https://www.jta.org/2014/04/06/israel/lev-tahor-members-ordered-deported-to-israel