The main witness in the case against Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlita, Itai Nachman Shalom, was once a close talmid of the rav but now, he has broken his silence and spoken with Walla News. During this interview he describes his “personal Holocaust” that has been his life as a result of the rav’s actions. However, adds Shalom, “there is no despair” and he plans to tell his truth “even at the cost of our lives” he exclaims.
Today Shalom insists “we will not rest and we will no longer remain silent”, determined to bring the truth to light, highlighting “Not with threats or physical violence. Everyone who harmed us – it is a big mitzvah for us [to seek justice]”.
After a journey to many countries since fleeing Israel in 2012, Rav Berland was arrested in South Africa two months ago. Now, it appears he will be extradited from Johannesburg to stand trial in Israel. The delay appears to be the Justice Minister has yet to sign the extradition order. In the interim, Rav Berland remains in custody.
The young former chossid of the rav was among those who waited outside his Betar Illit home for hours in the hope of seeing him engulfed in davening or limud. However, he now tells Walla that he saw the rav inside with a female (YWN omits the details from the Walla report) and these actions brought him to a crisis and doubting his emunah in HKBH. As the rumors of the report spread, police began a probe but during the interim, Rav Berland fled Israel and has been on the run since.
At present, four former female students have filed complaints with police, accusing the rav of assaulting them. There are other complaints addressing alleged attacks against chassidim by the rav. Shalom explains that in response to his exposing the rav, he receives death threats and has been assaulted. He has fled together with his family, having to leave Yerushalayim to relocate in Tzfat. He recounts that even on Rosh Hashanah at the tziyun of Rav Nachman in Uman he was recognized and assaulted.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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11 Responses
OIY, such a shame that such accusations are hurled, but hopefully truth and justice will prevail and who is guilty will be found out and punished.
The information in this report is very one sided. The lawyers in South Africa handling the extradition can’t understand why Israel wants him as the evidence is weaker than weak.
There is a halacha about being dan lechaf zechut about ordinary Jews. When it comes to righteous people then we have less flexibility to judge infavourably.
The halacha also states that one is not allowed to believe lashan hara. I had a case where a girl accused her father of terrible things. We went to a gadol who told us that we are not allowed to believe lashan harah notwithstanding how true it seems. In the end the girl admitted that she had convinced herself that her father did things to her, but it was all untrue. Accordingly it is difficult to understand who YWN can put such an anti-Torah article on their site.
IF what he saw is true… what ever happened to sheva yipol tzaddik va’kom?
you can slip an aveira or many but a tzaddik cant? all the more so to a tzaddik – his yetzer is 1000x stronger than ours!
dont blame or judge. im sure he regrets every time – IF it was done. he hasnt stopped serving Hashem with firm commitment. a tzaddik is also human you know. maybe he fled to give his self personal exile? maybe he needs a little help from a close freind? dont judge. hes a human being with a yetzer hara like the rest of us.
regardless of what he MAY have done… hes still a tzaddik. he still deserves respect.
YOU can slip an aveira or many but a tzaddik cant? all the more so to a tzaddik – his yetzer is 1000x stronger than ours!
always look at a fellow with a good eye.
hashem is THE judge. NOT you!
RELAX!
I still don’t understand how an upstanding clean publication like YWN keeps covering this story. It is either Lashon Hara or Moitzie shem Ra, and is also a sordid story completely unbefitting a wholesome news organization.
I’m getting more and more disgusted by the Lashon Harah and motzei Shem Ra of YWN, any one man can say any story about any gadol and you will publish it? why? to get higher ratings? it giving away all your olam habah worth a few ratings on the internet???
Does YWN contact a recognized poseik before posting loshon harah or you dont care. What poseik eas contacted before this was posted? or since youve done it many times before, its naa’seh loh ki’heter.
Thank you for omitting the details.
Thank you for omitting the details.
There are numerous Rabbonim who allow their names and even their writing to be used on this site.
I would like to hear what they have to say about this article (and the many others like it here.)
If they have an issue with the kind of writing that appears here, how will that affect their future interactions with this site? Do they not realize that their relationship with this site is taken by the tzibur as tacit approval of what appears here?
I woul appreciate if one of the obviously extremely knowledgable commentors can explain to me how ywn posting a very public story is loshon horah….i am obviously not to knowledgable on how it falls under the scope of loshon hora so please enlighten me since all of you are so quick to call it that i would assume you know.
You guys are all evading the main issue here.
This Berland guy has created an international hillul hashem of astronomical proportions!
There is no kapara for hillul hashem!
Even if he is innocent (which I doubt) he is certainly guilty of the gigantic hillul hashem that he caused.
A person like that can in no way be called a tzadik, on the contrary, hillul hashem is one of the worst possible sins – not something that a tzadik would cause.
The only way to save whatever can be saved is to totally disassociate from this guy and make him disappear from the media!
Even if does eventually get to Israel, stands trial, and is found innocent (which is highly doubtful!), the terrible hillul hashem that he caused will not be forgiven! Ever!
Why did he run away, and to so many countries, all over the world? To spread the hillul hashem all over the world?
Shame on him!!
HE DIDNT CAUSE THE CHILLUL HASHEM! THE MEDIA DID… BY FOLLOWING IS EVERY MOVE!