The Mexican police operation that rescued a group of children and adolescents in a Lev Tahor camp in the middle of the jungle in the state of Chiapas once again generated serious questions about this ultra-orthodox Jewish group, whose members have been called the “Jewish Taliban” because their women wear black clothes from head to toe.
However, the controversy surrounding this group religious, established in Latin American countries such as Mexico and Guatemala, goes far beyond its ultraconservative clothing.
A federal judge in Mexico gave the order to arrest several leaders of the group, whose camp is located about 17 kilometers north of the city of Tapachula, for suspected participation in child abuse, after an investigation carried out by the Deputy Attorney Specialized in Organized Crime Investigation.
As the BBC journalist Raffi Berg recalls, a case of kidnapping of two minors in 2016 -who were taken to New York by their mother after escaping from the community settled in Guatemala- ended with nine members of Lev Tahor accused and four of them –including the son of the founder of the sect and current leader, Nachman Helbrans– in prison.
The minors, kidnapped in the United States , were rescued in January of 2019 in Mexico. Nachman Helbrans is the brother of the children’s mother.
At that time, BBC Mundo obtained exclusive access to this community in Guatemala and one of its members spoke for the first Instead of this and other cases in which they have been involved, alleging that Lev Tahor suffers from “political persecution, due to his ideals”.
“It has been accused the community of kidnapping, but at no time has this been real,” said Guatemalan doctor Obadia Guzmán, on behalf of the 350 people who lived in Santa Rosa, in the southeast of the Central American country.
- The ultra-orthodox Jewish sect based in Guatemala speaks for the first time after being accused of child kidnapping in the US
But, as the BBC Mundo journalist Ana Gabriela Rojas indicated, since its creation in the years 80 in Israel, “this ultra-Orthodox group xo Jew has passed through the United States, Canada, Mexico and Guatemala, and his passage through these countries has been marked by scandals of kidnappings, child marriages or child abuse.”
Ultra-orthodox and anti-Zionist
Lev Tahor, whose name means “pure heart” in Hebrew, was founded in Jerusalem in the 1980 by Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans.
It is estimated that it has several hundred members, Come in 250 Y 500.
The group practices many of the customs of Hasidism, an orthodox and mystical stream of Judaism, but or in their application they are even stricter.
As well as in their clothing: women must be covered with black clothing from head to toe, barely exposing their faces, the men dress in black, cover their heads with hats and never shave their beards.
Their diet is based on a diet that follows the laws of kashrut, the set of biblical norms that establish what foods are suitable (kosher) that practitioners of Judaism can eat.
However, in this they also follow a more extreme version. Most of their meals are made at home with the use of natural and unprocessed ingredients.
They do not eat chickens or chicken eggs, considering that they have been manipulated genetically. They do consume, instead, geese and their eggs. They also do not eat rice, green onions or leafy vegetables, for fear of insects.
In the case of the other vegetables and fruits, they always remove the skin before consuming them, even in the case of tomatoes.
As for drinks, they only drink milk from cows that they can milk themselves and make their own wine.
Children, for their part, cannot eat sweets that have been bought in a store. Your sweets, thus, should be limited to the consumption of homemade chocolate or fruits, nuts and seeds.
Their relationship with technology is also extremely limited, as they avoid the use of electronic devices, including television and computers.
On the other hand , despite being a Jewish religious group, its political position is contrary to Zionism, for fear that the Jewish faith will be replaced by secular nationalism in the State of Israel.
Despite their extreme positions, the members of this sect consider that they operate fully within the borders of tradition and of Jewish religious norms and that, in reality, there is nothing new or different in what they do.
“They look like The only ones who are following the true path, like the guardians of the walls, like the defenders of the last flame that remains in the Jewish world. They have contempt for other branches of Hasidism, which they see as too compromising and dismiss as despicable and degenerate,” wrote Shay Fogelman, a journalist for Haaretz than in 2012 had the rare opportunity to spend five days living with the members of the Lev Tahor community.
“The basic requirement demanded of the members of Lev Tahor is simple: worship and serve God at all times, with all their heart and soul. Their libraries only have Jewish books. There are no televisions, radios or computers in their homes. Concepts such as free time, broadening one’s horizons or seeking personal development, in its strict sense Western, they don’t exist here”.
“The walls of their houses lack any decoration; there are no photos, amulets, pictures of rabbis. In most cases, the only decorations are silver candlesticks, menorahs or religious objects, all kept in a glass box”, he added.
In parallel to this description of the austere life of religious dedication of the sect, several accusations have arisen in recent years about the use of extreme and violent forms of control over its members, including the use of corporal punishment against minors and the forced marriage of underage women with older men.
These complaints have been made by part of former members of the sect and their families.
“The community is also accused of promoting marriage between minors. But we have never done it. That’s a personal thing. If someone feels capable and ready to forge a family according to their religious principles, it is up to each person. The right to want to get married cannot be prohibited,” Obadia Guzmán told BBC Mundo.
Controversies and expulsions
In 1980, Rabbi Shlomo Helbrans moved the group to the United States, where he established a Jewish school in Brooklyn.
A few years later, Lev Tahor would face his first problems with the law.
In 1993, Helbrans was arrested in New York accused of kidnapping a teenager who was studying with him to prepare for his bar mitzvah, the religious ritual that marks the beginning of the transition to adulthood in Judaism.
The parents of the minor accused Helbrans of trying to “brainwash” their son, while the rabbi accused them of abusing the child.
In the end, a court convicted Helbrans of kidnapping, and he spent two years in prison before being paroled in 1993.
In the year 2000, the rabbi was deported to Israel, where he did not stay long because he decided to settle together with their community in the province of Quebec (Canada).
The sect then settled in Sainte -Agathe, a small town of about ,000 inhabitants, located about two hours drive from Montreal.
But there also arose new complaints against the group, which was accused in 2013 po r child neglect social services.
According to the local press at the time, the Canadian authorities were concerned about the health and hygiene of minors, as well as for their education, since -apparently- these children who are educated at home were not acquiring the basic skills in mathematics.
Shortly after, the members of the sect left the country to settle in San Juan La Laguna (Guatemala), a town inhabited mainly by indigenous Mayans.
In that place they were not well received. After several months of misunderstandings, the council of elders of San Juan decided to expel the group on the grounds that its members rejected the local residents, refused to greet, mingle and even speak with the inhabitants.
“We feel intimidated by them in the streets. We think they want to change our religion and our customs,” Miguel Vásquez Cholotio, a member of the council of elders, told the Reuters agency at the time.
To force their departure, the local authorities gave them an ultimatum and threatened to cut off their access to public services.
The sect decided to relocate to Guatemala City, where its headquarters was later raided by prosecutors from the Public Ministry who were investigating whether there were cases of child abuse there.
In 2016 moved again to the town of El Amatillo, in the municipality of Oratorio, about 80 kilometers of Guatemala City.
A year later, the Israeli press published information about the death of Helbrans, which allegedly occurred while performing a religious ritual in a river in Chiapas (Mexico). It was then that it became known about the cult’s alleged plans to try to change the country again.
However, after the death of its founder and the arrest of its new leader for child abduction, the future of Lev Tahor became even bleaker.
The recent operation ordered by the Mexican authorities in the state of Chiapas shows that the scandals surrounding this ultra-Orthodox group show no signs of ending.
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