The saga of the extremist “Lev Tahor” cult has taken yet another bizarre twist. While prominent rabbanim and askanim tirelessly work to dismantle the notorious cult—known for child abuse, forced marriages of minors as young as 13, and a slew of other crimes—three men staged a daring escape last Saturday, smuggling eight children across the border from Guatemala into Belize.

The escape was part of a broader abduction case that began roughly a month ago, when eleven children were kidnapped. Three of them were discovered early on and returned to Guatemalan welfare facilities, but the remaining eight had been hidden away, waiting for the right moment to be smuggled out of the country. That moment came on Shabbos—a time when authorities least expected an operation of this scale—allowing the captors to exploit the lapse in surveillance.

However, the high-stakes smuggling attempt quickly turned into an international manhunt. Guatemalan and Belizean authorities launched a widespread search, culminating in the arrest of two key figures: 25-year-old Chaim Tzvi Malka and 35-year-old Avraham Dinkel.

Dinkel, no stranger to controversy, was previously caught on camera assaulting a Charedi activist who had traveled to Guatemala in an effort to rescue children from the cult’s clutches.

The operation was carefully orchestrated. On Shabbos, Malka and Dinkel fled Guatemala with a group of young girls and called a third accomplice, Moshe Yehuda Leib Alter, to transport the boys separately. But their plan unraveled when Belizean police grew suspicious of their movements. While Malka and Dinkel were quickly apprehended, Alter managed to escape—along with all eight children. Now, Belizean authorities are scrambling to track them down.

Adding a layer of complexity to the crisis is the tense border dispute between Guatemala and Belize. Sources assisting in the rescue efforts claim that the two nations rarely cooperate on extraditions, and Belize’s relatively weak legal framework means there is currently no formal extradition order for the missing children.

This latest incident comes in the wake of the December 20, 2024, raid on the “Lev Tahor” compound in San Rosa, Guatemala, roughly 60 miles from the capital. Authorities, responding to reports of severe abuse and neglect, rescued at least 160 minors from a life of malnutrition, forced isolation, and physical mistreatment at the hands of cult leaders. The children remain in state care, slowly recovering from the horrors they endured.

This is far from the first time Lev Tahor has resorted to extreme measures. In 2018, under the cover of night, cult leaders orchestrated a brazen kidnapping in Woodridge, in Upstate NY. In the early hours of Shabbos, they forced two young children—who had managed to escape with their mother—into a vehicle and whisked them away. Within hours, they had fled the United States, using an obscure Pennsylvania airport near Scranton to board a flight to Mexico City.

The kidnappers went to great lengths to conceal their tracks. In a calculated move, they had purchased non-traditional clothing just days before the abduction in Lakewood, New Jersey, dressing the children in unfamiliar attire to mask their identities as kidnapped Charedi minors.

Now, the questions remain: Will Belizean officials track down Alter and his captives? Will Guatemala push for extradition? And most importantly—will these children finally escape the grasp of what is likely the most dangerous cults in modern Jewish history?

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)