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Warning over extreme Jewish sect fundraising in London


London’s strictly-Orthodox Jewish community were this week being warned that members of an extreme Jewish sect are currently in the British capital to raise funds.


The photographic claims, which have not yet been verified by Jewish News, are being widely circulated online by a campaign group set up to help survivors of the Lev Tahor sect, whose leaders are currently in jail in the United States after being convicted of child kidnapping.


Hundreds of members of the anti-Zionist sect have been disbursed around the world in recent years, the group having settled – or sought to settle – in countries such as Guatemala, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Mexico, and Iran.


Those who have managed to escape have told of child sexual abuse, physical abuse, and a custom of arranged marriage for Jewish girls as young as 14, who are typically dressed head-to-toe in dark clothing from the age of three.


The ultra-radical Jewish sect Lev Tahor claims to be welcome in Morroco


During his recent visit in Morocco, Uriel Goldman, one of the leaders of Lev Tahor, an extremist Jewish group, claims to have received the blessing of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, one of the key players in the Israeli-Morocco rapprochement, to settle in the kingdom, we learn from the Israeli press.


They recall that the group was founded by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans in Jerusalem in the 1980s, adding that it is "an embattled ultra-Orthodox cult."


Rabbi Pinto declined to make a statement on the matter, while a representative of Morocco's Jewish community said he had no knowledge of the cult and Pinto was not connected to the wider Jewish community.



Leadership behind bars, Lev Tahor cult now seeking to move to Morocco, opponents say


Beleaguered ultra-Orthodox cult Lev Tahor is seeking to move to Morocco, and recently received the blessing of a prominent Moroccan-Israeli rabbi with an international celebrity following, as the extremist group seeks footing after fleeing other countries and having its leadership imprisoned, an activist opposed to the group said.


Uriel Goldman, one of Lev Tahor’s leaders, met recently with Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto in Morocco to win his favor to support the move, according to Lev Tahor Survivors, an organization supporting defectors who fled the group.


A representative of the Morocco’s small Jewish community said he had no knowledge of the cult and said Pinto was not connected to the wider community.


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