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Lev Tahor Moves to Guatemala, Abuse Continues


Is Shlomo Helbrans, the leader of Lev Tahor, a con man who uses eve­ry trick in the book to support himself and bolster his role of spiritual lead­er for his followers? Or is he a self-de­lusional quack who has a charismatic gift for sharing his delusion with oth­ers? JLBC has already exposed this man for kidnapping a child from New Milford, NJ in 1992, for which he served jail time, and which also triggered sub­sequent events, putting young frum children at great risk. Yet, somehow, Helbrans and his trusted aides have managed to amass millions of dollars in property and funds from the big-hearted and unwary public, and also from such renowned organizations as the Davidowitz Family Foundation. The group presents a picture of desti­tution to the unwary and believes that its staged performances for the media of observance of secular laws are tak­en seriously. They are even support­ed by the editors of Ami Magazine in Brooklyn.


16X9: Under the veil of Lev Tahor, Jewish sect accused of abuse


The ultra-orthodox Jewish community of Lev Tahor is fighting to keep their children amid allegations from youth protection officers that the sect is a dangerous and controlling environment, where girls are married off underage, people are brainwashed and physically abused.


In November, the group left Quebec ahead of a court hearing that would eventually order the temporary removal of 14 children. The sect loaded all families with children under 18 into three buses and, in the dead of night, drove for over 12 hours to Chatham-Kent, Ontario.


Lev Tahor sect starts new life in Guatemala after fleeing child neglect allegations


The villagers in San Juan la Laguna, Guatemala, did not know what to make of it when the devout newcomers appeared, the men in long black coats, the women and girls in dark chadors despite the tropical heat.

Their arrival sparked fear among some people in the indigenous community, who were taken aback by their clothing, customs and Yiddish speech. “There were even people who believed that their presence signalled the second coming of Christ,” Salvador Loarca, an assistant attorney in the local human rights office, said in a telephone interview last week.


In fact, what appears to be occurring in the lakeside region about 80 kilometres west of the capital Guatemala City is the latest coming of the nomadic, ultra-orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor. Founded by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans in Jerusalem in the 1980s, the group spent close to a decade in New York state and more than a decade in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, Que., before fleeing to Chatham, Ont., in the middle of the night last fall as Quebec child-protection authorities prepared to intervene.


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