In dramatic but heartbreaking scenes published on social media, confused Lev Tahor children are seen fighting with the police during a large-scale operation carried ut by the Guatemalan authorities on Friday.
As YWN reported on Motzei Shabbos, the Guatemalan police carried out a massive raid of the Lev Tahor cult rescuing 160 children and teens and 40 women after testimonies of severe abuse at the cult’s compound.
In the videos, the adult cult members are heard instructing the children [in Yiddish] to hit the police and that the police “are not allowed to hit back. Don’t be afraid. They can’t do anything to you.”
The cult members also order the children to escape “from the top” or to kick the police officers and crawl out from underneath their feet.
The rescued children and teens were transferred to a welfare facility in Guatemala City. According to reports, some of the children and teens wreaked havoc on the facility, requiring a move to another facility.
Israeli media outlets reported that the Guatemalan authorities consulted with the local Jewish kehilla before the raid to ensure the children’s religious needs were met.
However, Ynet reported on Sunday that the children’s continued detention in the facility poses legal issues which are expected to lead to their release in the near future. Additionally, efforts to transfer some of the children to guardians in Israel are also encountering complex legal difficulties due to the need to prove that the children are being harmed by both parents.
Reports indicate that out of the 200 rescued individuals, about 150 hold Israeli citizenship, while the others are citizens of Guatemala, the United States, and Canada. Cult members with foreign citizenship are at risk of deportation but Guatemalan laws make it difficult to deport foreign citizens. Authorities are considering issuing a presidential decree for their deportation but cult members have the right to appeal under the law.
Editor’s Note: YWN has been at the forefront of fighting the Lev Tahor cult for more than 15 years, with dozens of articles published over the years. YWN has spoken to many victims of the Lev Tahor cult who managed to escape. To say they were terribly abused sexually, suffering constant violent beatings, forced starvation and other horrific abuse, understates the atrocities they endured. The world is a safer place now that these monsters are behind bars. Our hope is that the rest of the leadership in charge of this cult are arrested and thrown behind bars.
YWN has received many, many emails and phone calls from desperate parents and siblings of cult members who were unfortunately sucked into this nightmare and have lost contact with their loved ones. Most importantly, all possible efforts should be made to save children who are being dragged around the world now as this cult is on the run. Rescuing these children is literally Pikuach Nefashos.
Lev Tahor was founded and led by Shlomo Helbrans, from the 1980s until his drowning death in Mexico in 2017. Since then, the leadership has moved into the hands of his son Nachman Helbrans, along with Mayer Rosner, and Yankel and Yoel Weingarten – who are even more radical and aggressive than the late founder. Thankfully, they are all on prison.
In 2014, YWN ran an article titled “Cults and the War of the Jewish Magazines” in response to Mishpacha and Ami magazines running articles on Lev Tahor. Mishpacha Magazine had run a fifteen page “expose” on the group, essentially describing Lev Tahor as a cult that has some serious issues involving medicating children, and behaviors that resemble child abuse. Rabbi Yitzchok Frankfurter of Ami Magazine claimed the exact opposite – and ran the following sentence below their headline, “The unjust persecution of a group of pious Jews, and the unsettling silence of the Jewish community.”
We hope and pray that these convictions settle the debate once and for all, demonstrating beyond a shadow of doubt that Lev Tahor and its leaders is a demonic and evil cult.
[LEV TAHOR HORROR: Tales of Beatings and Torture Emerge From Excommunicated Cult Members]
[After 7 Years: Brothers Who Escaped Lev Tahor Try To Visit Their Mother, Are Cruelly Driven Away]
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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7 Responses
Not commenting on the main substance of the article
I have no idea what’s going on there
-and therefore I have no opinion)
But what in the world do you mean
“Consulted with the local kehilla”
Local kehilla??
Kehilla??
In Guatemala ?
I know there is a very fine Chabad shliach there
Who leads Chabad style activities
Is there a megilla there??
Reports are the children are refusing to eat, demanding only chasidishe hechsherim. And the authorities have no food the children will accept. The authorities are deciding whether to take them all 160 to the hospital to feed with pipes or have no choice but to return the children to their parents so that they do not starve.
Not commenting on the main substance of the article
I have no idea what’s going on there
-and therefore I have no opinion)
But what in the world do you mean
“Consulted with the local kehilla”
Local kehilla??
Kehilla??
In Guatemala ?
I know there is a very fine Chabad shliach there
Who leads Chabad style activities
Is there a kehilla there??
These are פעך .ממזרים
What is this going to help? – this is only traumatizing these poor kids even more. Imagine a child being kidnapped – this is what they are going through – this needs to be done a lot smarter. Problem is that legally these kids cant be taken away, since there is no proof of abuse or neglect on these children.
@Cholent18,
There is a kehilla of geirim in Guatemala (a whole town that converted i think it was) that at the beginning were associated with Lev Tahor, not knowing who they were, and that Lev Tahor was the only “other” “frum” “kehilla” near them, but ultimately they totally distanced themselves from Lev Tahor, and have actually helped rescue efforts many times.
Satmar has taken this kehilla under their wing, sending people to train in rabbanut, shechita, mohalut etc etc.
And they were consulted before this rescue operation to make sure that Jewish relligion was taken into consideration.
They do not recognize standard chasidishe hechsherim. Not even the most machmir. They have been raised from birth that all the other frum people are not actually frum- only they are. They do not associate with any other jews, not even the most farfrumpt. Except, of course, when they are schnorring in the shuls, etc… Although, by now, they have largely been kicked out of most of these places, by and large. They do not eat most foods- yaharog v’lo yaavor. No fleishigs, no fish, eggs or dairy; some, but not all fruits and vegetables. Some bread, but not regular bread. Notice that they are mostly very scrawny. Although Mr Helbrans himself was quite hefty.