Family Member Of Haredi Cult Member Vows To Remove Sister And Her Children From Haredi Cult
P was raised in a traditional Jewish home in Israel. After she completed her mandatory two-year army service (compulsory for all women from age 18 to 20 in Israel), she moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., where she began living a more religious lifestyle. She was hired as an au pair for an ultraorthodox family in Brooklyn. She was encouraged by that family to marry a man who was part of the Lev Tahor sect. K found out recently the marriage had been arranged by a matchmaker hired by the sect because of a shortage of women. The family that encouraged P to marry was given $5,000 by the matchmaker to help assure the match. The matchmaker was also paid.
Women in the Lev Tahor cult
The Montreal Gazette reports:
When K visited his sister in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts two and a half years ago, he thought the ultraorthodox Jewish community where she lived merely had a strict interpretation of Jewish law.
Now, he realizes the Lev Tahor community was masking its true living conditions for the benefit of an outsider.
Because the case is subject to Quebec’s youth protection laws, the children can’t be identified, nor can any family members who can be directly traced back to them. Neither K’s name, nor that of his sister, P, can be used.
“When I got back, people told me, ‘You have to get your family out of there,’ ” K said in a telephone interview from Israel, through a Hebrew interpreter.
K is the uncle of eight children who are among 14 minors ordered by a Quebec judge last month to be placed in foster care for a period of at least 30 days. However, a week before the hearing, the families involved were among a group of about 200 community members who had fled by bus to Chatham, Ont.
An Ontario justice of the peace last week denied a warrant to Chatham-Kent Children’s Aid Society to send the children to foster homes in Quebec. The case has been appealed, and will be heard on Dec. 23.
K said he’s disappointed the process continues to drag on.
A father of two, he said he wants to bring his nieces and nephews, and his sister, home to Israel.
“I have two sisters who are ultra orthodox, and my parents are also back in Israel, and we have the means to provide for them and help them recover,” he said. “Whatever it takes, I will remove my precious sister.”
Although Lev Tahor’s leader, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans, has denied ever approving the marriage of children under the Canadian legal age of 16, K has heard that his two eldest nieces had grooms lined up to marry them when they were 12 and 13 years old. K doesn’t know if either of them have yet been married. The oldest child in the family is now 14.
P was raised in a traditional Jewish home in Israel. After she completed her mandatory two-year army service (compulsory for all women from age 18 to 20 in Israel), she moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., where she began living a more religious lifestyle. She was hired as an au pair for an ultraorthodox family in Brooklyn. She was encouraged by that family to marry a man who was part of the Lev Tahor sect. K found out recently the marriage had been arranged by a matchmaker hired by the sect because of a shortage of women. The family that encouraged P to marry was given $5,000 by the matchmaker to help assure the match. The matchmaker was also paid.
The wedding took place in 1999 in Brooklyn, and while K didn’t attend, two aunts, his parents, a brother and a sister made the trip from Israel.
“They thought they had strange customs, but because they have never attended an ultraorthodox wedding, they had nothing to compare it to,” he said.
Among the more extreme pre-wedding requirements, his sister had all her body hair, including the hair on her head, shaved.
K said after his visit two years ago, he endeavoured to find out as much as he could about the sect. He interviewed several former members, and contacted many families. He learned that children are routinely removed from their parents for weeks at a time as a form of punishment or coercion. He was told that when he was visiting his sister, her children had only temporarily been returned to her for the duration of his visit, and they were once again removed after he left.
A parliamentary committee in Israel’s Knesset has also heard in testimony that children are routinely taken away from their families and forced to live with other sect members.
K said others have told him that the sect’s leadership regularly instruct members to go without food or water for a 25-hour period as a form of punishment. This punishment can be meted out two or three times a week for certain members, he said. There is also widespread use of psychological drugs, and children are routinely hit. When he visited, he saw that his nieces and nephews were wearing shoes that were too small. The Knesset committee also heard that is a form or punishment in the community.
K said many families have contacted him with their concerns, but they are reluctant to step forward and publicly denounce the sect because they fear the community will cut off contact.
“I am the face of dozens of family members who are crying all the time,” K said. “The families are so worried for all these children.”
K is concerned the sect will make it impossible for authorities to track down his sister and her family, by moving them to another part of the country, or even to the United States.
“I’m afraid that because Canadian authorities consider them to be responsible adults, the (Lev Tahor leadership) will hide them away and then say that they left of their own free will,” he said. “But the reality is that they can’t make decisions for themselves. The community’s leader, (Helbrans) makes all the decisions for everyone.”
Lev Tahor, which means pure heart in Hebrew, was created by Helbrans in Israel in the 1980s. Helbrans moved to Brooklyn in the 1990s, and was deported back to Israel after he was convicted of conspiracy to kidnap a 13-year-old boy. He was granted refugee status after settling in Canada in 2004, on the grounds that because his group opposes the creation of the state of Israel, he would be persecuted if he returned.
Canadians are just as gutless as anyone when it comes to stamping out this kind of abuse. A forcible rescue of the children is what's needed. I have no more patience for the abuse of children continuing while the authorities are seemingly more concerned with the smoking of marijuana or some similar minor level offense than with the welfare of minor children being abused by religious fanatics.
Posted by: S M L | December 15, 2013 at 03:43 PM