According to South African police, an international arrest warrant has been issued against Shuvu Banim Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Berland. Rav Berland has been on the run for some time, seeking to evade arrest in Israel for alleged crimes.
South African police almost placed the rabbi in custody while he was attending a wedding but with the help of some of his chassidim, the rav succeeded in fleeing the chasenah without being taken into custody.
Since fleeing Eretz Yisrael, the rav has been in Morocco and Zimbabwe as he continues to evade arrest.
Rabbi Berland’s travels began when he fled Israel around 22 months ago to avoid arrest amid accusations of law-breaking. He first set up shop in Morocco, where he was for seven months until being instructed to leave. He then chose Zimbabwe as his new home, where he remained until his visa expired – as well as being questioned by local police. He was instructed to leave immediately, and then proceeded to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he remains until today.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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15 Responses
This can’t go on forever
Innocent people don’t run like this.
He is not going to be able to run away forever. (Moshiach will also want to question him.) When the police want someone they get him. this Chillul Hashem has to end somehow. If he’s innocent let him prove it.
Just wondering what does a person have to do to lose his title of “rabbi”, a simple google search brings up pretty horrendous results..
chazal tell us that if a tzaddik is seen doing an aveira (and rav Berland was not seen, rather his crime is based on rumors and lies), that person should immediatly believe that by the time morning comes, the tzaddik had already done teshuva(which means that hashem has completely forgave the aveira, erased it completely, and the sinner is looked at as if the sin had never been done). we learn from the story of David HaMelech and batshevah, once David had said “CHATATI”, HASHEM forgave him completely and our sages said that one shall not dare to called David a sinner.
Rav Berland is a tzaddik. lets just say that if the rumers and lies were possibly true, a person is obligated to consider him as if he never sinned… Because he had surly, sincerely done teshuvah!
P.S. never belive the media when it comes to a Tzaddik!
what did he run from israel for if he did nothing wrong.
When I hear things like it make me very disturbed. I do not know if he is guilty or innocent but it affects the whole community. I hope this ends soon.
When I hear things like this it makes me very disturbed. I do not know if he is guilty or innocent but it affects the whole community. I hope this ends soon.
Interesting. We get all disturbed when the media portraits Israel as war criminals when we know it is all false accusations and the furthest from the truth, and “a simple google search brings up pretty horrendous results”.
However when it comes to our own Rabbonim we are so quick to accept what the media says.
We wouldn’t talk this way about Israel.
“The whole world is against Israel there must be some truth to it”.
“If they are so innocent why don’t they come to the U.N. international court (who in an all-to-none vote deligitimized Israel) and prove their innocence”
“This is really a chillul Hashem, look at how to whole world views them”
Maybe the Tzaddik chose to take upon himself the suffering of the entire Jewish Nation, as it says “והוא מחולל מפשעינו מדוכא מעונותינו”
“Moshiach will definitely want to question us” for our loshon harah and not being dan lchaf zchus. Hey even Moshe Rabeinu was suspected by all the Jewish people of being over of eishes ish as the Gemara in Sanhedrin pg110 says.
We have clear halachos of what we are allowed to believe and what we aren’t, what we are allowed to speak and what we aren’t. The gemara also says (baba metziah 59) Dovid Hamelech answered Achitofel when he would say “Dovid someone who transgresses eishes ish what is his penalty?” Dovid would answer “He gets strangeled but he has a share in the world to come, however someone who insults another in public has no share in the world to come”…
He is running because if he were to stay in Israel and let the court decide he would have no choice but to accuse the true guilty parties of their false accusations.
Rabbi Berland is not able to come to terms with accusing another Jew in court and so chose to flee even though this casts a negative light on him. Another reason: Because the attention such a case gets in court is far worse.
There is a famous story of a Rav that went to visit a Jewish banker in his office. The safe in the room was open and the banker left for a moment to another room. The Rav followed him out and the banker protested, saying “I trust you Rabbi! you can stay in the office!”.
The Rav answered by posing a hypothetical: Should some money go missing and the banker will try to remember who was in the office in the recent past and will remember that the Rabbi was there. He will quickly say, “Ach! The Rabbi would never steal!”
Said the Rav, “I don’t even want you to have to say, “Ach!…”
If details that were imagined or fabricated come out, it just gives people more reasons to say “Ach, the Rabbi would never do _____”.
Ask your Rosh Yeshiva to verify these accusations before you believe them. Most senior Gedolei Torah in Israel are behind him.
To lbj:
It is very possible he did nothing wrong. You are wondering why should he run away. During the past few years there were several stories about police interrogations. A lot of times the police will question someone for 5 hours, 10 hours and sometimes even for a few days. I think that it exists a mental illness and certain people are not able to handle police questioning.
Do people accused of similar crimes also get Interpol warrents or do you have to be special?
This is very ugly story and does not belong in the yeshiva world news.
One thing is clear; he would not get a fair trial in Israel as he is chareidi!
That’s what is the problem today.
The more you Google or search the searchers think that this person must be important, and the person gets targeted for notoriety.
Don’t search Erliche Yiddishkinder
Because you become a mesaye lovrei avireh.
There is no precedent that the Interpol will seek to arrest a person on the type of offenses attributed to Rabbi Berland, especially since he was not convicted of anything but only wanted for questioning.
There are lots of convicted fugitive criminals and murderers in South Africa, living there for years, and nobody is looking for them. This indicates that Rabbi Berland is marked due to some objective and goal for which a complete system is in operation to chase him all over the world as we have already seen (and this can be done by people with lots of money and power), and therefore it is clear that even if he will come for investigation he will not be given a fair trial.