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New Documentary Shares Story of Escape from Cult


A new 35 minute documentary shares the story of a 20-year-old survivor of the Lev Tahor cult’s suspenseful escape from their Guatemalan compound.


The film, produced by several members of the Hasidic community who are trying to expose the abuse and help people trapped inside Lev Tahor, follows Yoel Levy as he meets fellow cult survivor Rabbi Yaniv Assis for the first time in 10 years.


Rabbi Assis is a respected educator and Torah scholar who spent time with the cult when they were based in a small town in Quebec’s Laurentian Mountains. Yoel Levy was born and raised in Ste Agathe, Quebec to parents who were members of Lev Tahor, a semi-secluded Jewish cult with members of its leadership sitting in prison for kidnapping, child abuse, and child sexual exploitation. They both allowed a film crew to document their reunion, where they tried to piece together the twisted Lev Tahor puzzle.


The beginning of the end for the Lev Tahor sect?


Two leaders of the Lev Tahor sect, Yaakov and Shmuel Weingarten, will be extradited from Guatemala for trial in the United States, The Yeshiva World reported Monday. Both are accused of taking part in a plot to kidnap a 14-year-old girl so that she could procreate with her "husband" in 2018.


Those same charges landed cult leader Nachman Helbrans — son of late founder Shlomo Helbrans — and his right-hand man, Mayer Rosner, behind bars in late March. They were sentenced to 12 years in prison, followed by five years on parole.


Leaders of Lev Tahor “have embraced extreme practices, such as intrusive surveillance of its members, frequent beatings, and marriages between minors and adult members, says the US Department of Justice. Lev Tahor's children are often subject to physical, sexual and emotional abuse”.



Lev Tahor Cult Leaders Extradited from Guatemala to the US to Face Kidnapping Charges


Two Lev Tahor leaders who were arrested last year in Guatemala have been extradited to the United States to face trial, according to a report on Monday on the Yeshiva World News web site.


Yaakov and Shmuel Weingarten are facing charges of suspected kidnapping and abuse of children. The kidnapping attempt was intentionally perpetrated on Shabbos to make it more difficult for the parents to pursue them, the YWN report indicated.


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