Wife of Jewish cult leader flees after being beaten.

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rainbow dash

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 2:47 am

The wife of ultra-Orthodox Jewish cult leader Shlomo Helbrans fled after being severely beaten by her husband's followers, Malka Helbrans revealed in an interview.

Shlomo Helbrans is the cult leader of Lev Tahor, a small group of radical ultra-Orthodox Jews in Montreal, Canada. Helbrans was accused of child abuse and kidnapping in Israel and in the United States before fleeing to Canada.

The wife of the cult leader, Malka Helbrans, arrived back in Israel this week after she was beaten to near death by her husband’s followers.

Malka recently told her family members about what had happened to her one Saturday about six months ago. "I heard men violently knocking on the door of the women’s synagogue," she recalled. "I saw eight to ten men with plastic white chairs charge at me and they all started beating me with the chairs. I thought I was dying. I screamed. I did not understand what was happening. I did not understand why. They chased me home. They threw snow at me. The knocked down my door and beat me and beat me, and beat me." Malka said.

"They accused me of closing the door to the women’s section," Malka explained.
The trouble for the rabbi's wife began after she voiced opposition to the rampant child abuse going on in the community. “The main reason for my sufferings is the fact that I dared to voice opposition to the punishments that are being used in the village,” Malka said.

Punishments include beatings of children, forced marriages between members of the community, marriage of minors as young as 14, achieving compliance through pain, denial of food, violent separation between parents and children from the age of six months, complete isolation from family in Israel, and more.

jerusalem-girl

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 2:49 am

Is this true??? Where's the link?

rainbow dash

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 2:53 am

[quote="jerusalem-girl"] shock

Is this true??? Where's the link?[/quo

Ill post the link but its not a such a clean site. Its from http://www.yourjewishnews.com/

jerusalem-girl

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 2:58 am

http://articles.chicagotribune.....gious

I see this article is old, and I hope Shai was found, but these helbrands can still walk around peacefully in a Western country??

jerusalem-girl

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 3:01 am

rainbow dash wrote:

jerusalem-girl wrote:

Is this true??? Where's the link?

Ill post the link but its not a such a clean site. Its from http://www.yourjewishnews.com/

I saw that, but why aren't any reputable news sites reporting?

And is Lev Tahor an actual existing cult? Doesn't the Canadian govt. do anything about child abuse?

bamamama

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 3:25 am

jerusalem-girl wrote:

rainbow dash wrote:

jerusalem-girl wrote:

Is this true??? Where's the link?

Ill post the link but its not a such a clean site. Its from http://www.yourjewishnews.com/

I saw that, but why aren't any reputable news sites reporting?

And is Lev Tahor an actual existing cult? Doesn't the Canadian govt. do anything about child abuse?

this is the only Canadian news story I could find but it's almost 2 years old: http://www.theglobeandmail.com.....9301/

I'm guessing no one has ever gone to the authorities about the abuse.

esther09

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 4:08 am

The article had me until this sentence:

"Even in Israel, where almost everyone wears black, the “Taliban women,” as they are called, stand out. They are not popular."

shock

I don't live there but last time I visited, I don't remember that to be the case.

abound

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 4:19 am

Helbrans son is in Israel too, He is ostracized from the cult because he dared to go to Israel, he wanted to meet with real rabbonim. He cannot see his wife and kids. He is now starting a custody battle for his children.

jerusalem-girl

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 4:40 am

esther09 wrote:

The article had me until this sentence:

"Even in Israel, where almost everyone wears black, the “Taliban women,” as they are called, stand out. They are not popular."

shock

I don't live there but last time I visited, I don't remember that to be the case.

Yeah, I noticed that line also!
Once upon a time, about a year ago, you could say, "Even in ultra-Orthodox circles, where almost everyone wears black." But that was never an Israeli specific problem. And it's a huge stereotype.
Today colors are totally in, in the US and Israel.

jerusalem-girl

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 4:41 am

abound wrote:

Oh my.

Am I living under a rock that I never heard of this cult?

mimivan

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 6:36 am

I heard about Lev Tahor a couple of years ago..but I thought they were in Israel...apparently they "relocated." They were referred to (not unjustly, given their practices) as The Jewish Taliban.

Mama Bear

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 1:06 pm

No other site other than yourjewishnews is reporting it, so I don't believe it's true.

but yeah, this cult exists, it's been written about extensively.

bamamama

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 1:18 pm

Mama Bear wrote:

No other site other than yourjewishnews is reporting it, so I don't believe it's true.

but yeah, this cult exists, it's been written about extensively.

from what I've seen, yourjewishnews seems to be about as reliable as the National Enquirer.

abound

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 1:24 pm

jerusalem-girl wrote:

abound wrote:

Oh my.

Am I living under a rock that I never heard of this cult?

Not under a rock but pretty much in a cave
I know about them mostly because they lived in Boro Park around 20 years ago and Mr Helbrans was my neighbor and he fled one night in the middle of the night. As far as I remember the neighbors and community helped the police as much as possible, this was before he was known as cult leader, just no one trusted them.

birdy

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 5:45 pm

Gosh... My parents had a tenant and the husband was part of this cult.
The wife was in the hospital a few times due to malnutrition; they were only allowed to have a limited amount of food They were stripped of their money by this helbrans- they ended up having to run away... Poor wife, poor kids

geshmak

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 7:12 pm

[quote="abound Not under a rock but pretty much in a cave
I know about them mostly because they lived in Boro Park around 20 years ago and Mr Helbrans was my neighbor and he fled one night in the middle of the night. As far as I remember the neighbors and community helped the police as much as possible, this was before he was known as cult leader, just no one trusted them.[/quote]

He ran away after the Shai Fhima story, at that time he had a handful of followers and they weren't so extreme. I believe the extremism began when they moved as a group to Canada.

causemommysaid

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 9:04 pm

Im pretty sure the boy was found.

b from nj

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 9:24 pm

I'm familiar with Helbrans' cult & the Lev Tahor sect. They are currently living in a compound north of Montreal in the Laurentian mountains. The canadian police cannot do anything about all the abuse that takes place inside the compound b/c they are heavy guarded & no one can enter the community.

I've heard of some children who ran away to Montreal b/c of the abuse & they spoke about the craziness that goes on there.

Hashem Yishmor.

Jughead

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 9:34 pm

Ami had a story in the sukkos supplement... or maybe it was last year's Pesach supplement?
I think it was about this cult, no?

wereafamily

Tue, Jun 11 2013, 9:49 pm

I can't stop thinking about them, why is there no organization doing anything!

I want to help them, someone tell me how!

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