Child Protection Seizes 2 Lev Tahor Cult Children

Ontario child-protection authorities have reportedly taken two children from the haredi Lev Tahor cult into protective custody.

Nachman Helbrans, the son of Lev Tahor's leader Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, in an Ontario hotel room with unidentified Lev Tahor children late last month

The Toronto Star reports:

Ontario child-protection authorities have taken two children into protective custody from the reclusive Jewish group Lev Tahor, the Toronto Star has learned.

A lawyer for the group has confirmed that officials with the Chatham-Kent Children's Services seized two children from one family last Thursday evening.

Lawyer Chris Knowles said in an email that children who are seized from their families must appear before a judge within five days.

The circumstances around the seizure are not known, but the Star has been told by a source that the children taken into custody are not connected to a Quebec court ruling last month that 14 children be taken into foster care. A second source said that the children are a brother and sister, around three or four years of age.

The original case in Quebec targeted children from two Lev Tahor families ranging in age from two months to 16 years. About 40 families from the ultra-orthodox Jewish group fled to Ontario on Nov. 18, a few days before that ruling was handed down. After two weeks of silence, it emerged that Chatham-Kent child-welfare authorities had sought a warrant on Dec. 4 to seize all the children. An Ontario Justice of the Peace denied that request. An appeal of that refusal is to be heard on Dec. 23.

Quebec authorities have documented what they say is evidence of neglect, psychological abuse, poor dental and physical health and an education regime run by the community that falls below provincial standards.

Critics of the group say that Lev Tahor's spiritual leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, exerts strict control and discipline over his followers. An Israeli parliamentary hearing last month documented cases of physical abuse and said the heretical sect is a dangerous cult.

4 Recent Lev Tahor Cult Posts:

Haredi Cult AWOL As Quebec Court Orders 14 Of Its Children Into Foster Care

Ontario Children's Aid Asks Court To Allow Them To Seize Lev Tahor Cult Children

Haredi Cult That Fled Quebec Left Behind Years Of Unpaid Bills, Back Taxes And Bounced Checks

Haredi Cult On Lam From The Law Worries Truth About Its Finances Will Hurt Fundraising

Comments

[S M L]

If this seizure confirms (though examination of the children) that they've been abused I imagine it'll be game over for this cult, or so one would reasonably hope.

[Frum but normal]

Not good enough,it is the gangster in chief "helbrans who should have been seized and put away for a long time

[S M L]

People like Helbrans use up too much of the world's precious oxygen. He should be fed to sharks, alive.

[plus.google.com/105365650738687784925]

Odd story. They knew the abductions in Quebec were coming and left the night before. How did they caught unawares this time?
And where will they run to now?
What's interesting to read are the reactions from locals on the local newspaper blogs. As they point out, the Lev Tahor marry 16 year olds to 40 year olds and then the girls promptly get pregnant. In the outside community the 16 year girls also get pregnant but rarely know who the dad is.

[Yochanan Lavie]

People like Helbrans use up too much of the world's precious oxygen. He should be fed to sharks, alive.

Sharks are endangered. That would be animal cruelty.

[Barry]

This seems to relate to incidents of child abuse which occurred after the recent move to Ontario.

The Montreal Gazette reports that

' A source close to the Lev Tahor community, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the children — a brother and sister who are under 5 years old — were taken to a hospital in Windsor, Ont., last week. After a doctor there reported he suspected they were being abused, the children were placed in a foster home in Ontario last Thursday.'

http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/children+removed+from+Tahor+group+Ontario/9293429/story.html

[Yosef ben Matitya]

Helbrans
actually his name is Albarnes he adopted the ashkenazified name; why? only God and the fool himself would know.
The photo above with him in an odd fedora and the women in the background dressed in Qatari 1950's fashion is eery!