Shlomo Helbrans
Rabbi Shlomo Erez Helbrans or Shlomo Elbarnes (born 1962) is a Hasidic rabbi who leads the extreme ultra-Orthodox group Lev Tahor (pure heart). Originally a citizen of the State of Israel, he went to the United States where he was convicted for kidnapping in 1994 and served a two year prison term before being deported to Israel in 2000. He then settled in Canada, where he currently is the head of the Lev Tahor settlement with an estimated 45 ultra-Orthodox Jewish families in Sainte Agathe des Monts in the Laurentian mountains in Quebec. He is an Anti-Zionist and claims to have formed his group after the Satmar Hasidic movement.
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[edit] Life
A native of Jerusalem′s Kiryat Yovel neighborhood, Helbrans went to the United States in 1990, where he began forming an extremist Orthodox group and taught some students at a small Lev Tahor yeshiva in Brooklyn.[1] In 1994 he was convicted in Brooklyn for the 1992 kidnapping of 13-year-old Shai Fhima Reuven, a Bar Mitzvah boy he was tutoring, and served a two year prison term in the U.S.[2] He was originally sentenced to four to 12 years in prison, but in June 1996 an appeals court reduced the sentence to two to six years. Three days later, he was placed in the work release program for prisoners less than two years away from the possibility of parole, where inmates are freed from prison if they have a job.[3] After protests, he was moved back to prison.[4]
The high profile case draw much attention in the U.S., and gained further attention when Helbrans successfully convinced New York prison authorities to waive their requirement that all prisoners be shaved for a photograph upon entering prison, a violation of strict Jewish law in his opinion, and to accept a computer-generated image of what he would have looked like clean-shaven instead.[5] After the State Parole Board decided in November 1996 to release Helbrans after two years in prison, the case rose to near scandal with suspicions that the Pataki administration was providing him special treatment.[3][6]
After his release from prison, Helbrans ran a yeshiva in Monsey, N.Y.,[3] and was deported to Israel in 2000. He then settled in Canada, where in 2003 he was granted refugee status, claiming his life was being threatened in Israel.[7]
[edit] Lev Tahor
Helbrans community, Lev Tahor, is considered extreme by other Haredi Jewish communities. In Israel it is known as part of the “Jewish Taliban” and “the Taliban sect”.[1] The group has followers in Israel, particularly in the city of Bet Shemesh, in Europe, in the U.S., and in Canada. The Lev Tahor settlement near Montréal consists of an estimated 45 families. They are said to be fervently religious, holding prayer services which last almost all day.[1] All female members are required to wear burka-like clothes that cover their entire bodies and their faces.[8] Lev Tahor reportedly practises rituals involving lashing anyone considered to be a “sinner”, and marrying 14-year-old girls.[1] The case of two Israeli girls stopped by petition of their great-uncle at Montreal's Trudeau Airport from joining the community they were sent to join by their parents made headlines in and outside Israel,[1][9][10] and drew attention to the formerly unnoticed community in Canada.[11][12]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e Oz Rosenberg (5 October 2011). "Court to rule on legality of Israeli ultra-Orthodox 'Taliban sect'". Haaretz. http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/court-to-rule-on-legality-of-israeli-ultra-orthodox-taliban-sect-1.388187. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Joseph P. Fried (23 November 1994). "Rabbi Given Prison Term In Kidnapping Of Teen-Ager". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/11/23/nyregion/rabbi-given-prison-term-in-kidnapping-of-teen-ager.html. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ a b c Eric J. Greenberg (1 May 1998). "Pataki’s Con-Tacts?". The Jewish Week. http://www.thejewishweek.com/features/pataki%E2%80%99s_con_tacts. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Clifford J. Levy (26 April 1998). "U.S. Asks Whether Leniency for Rabbi Had Link to a Pataki Backer". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/26/nyregion/us-asks-whether-leniency-for-rabbi-had-link-to-a-pataki-backer.html. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ George James (29 December 2004). "Computer Replaces Razor For Rabbi's Prison Picture". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/29/nyregion/computer-replaces-razor-for-rabbi-s-prison-picture.html. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ "Rabbi Is Deported 5 Years After Conviction, Lawyer Says". The New York Times. 12 May 2000. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/12/nyregion/rabbi-is-deported-5-years-after-conviction-lawyer-says.html. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Sheldon Gordon (3 September 2004). "Convicted of Kidnapping, Rabbi Faces Deportation". The Jewish Daily Forward. http://www.forward.com/articles/5245/. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ "The Mod (read modesty) Squad Gets Aggressive". The Jerusalem Post. 10 October 2011. http://www.jpost.com/JerusalemReport/Israel/Article.aspx?ID=239955. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Allison Kaplan Sommer (5 October 2011). "Will Jews Wearing Burkas Open Pandora's Box?". http://blogs.forward.com/sisterhood-blog/tags/lev-tahor/. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Peter Münch (10 October 2011). "So unerbittlich wie die Taliban" (in German). Sueddeutsche Zeitung. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/israel-streitet-um-ultra-orthodoxe-sekte-so-unerbittlich-wie-die-taliban-1.1158091. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
- ^ Émilie Dubreuil (7 October 2011). "Une communauté juive controversée" (in French). Reportage de Radio-Canada. http://www.radio-canada.ca/regions/Montreal/2011/10/07/007-lev-tahor-communaute.shtml. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
- ^ Marie-Claude Malboeuf (7 October 2011). "Des «talibans juifs» dans les Laurentides?" (in French). La Presse. http://www.cyberpresse.ca/actualites/quebec-canada/national/201110/07/01-4455052-des-talibans-juifs-dans-les-laurentides.php. Retrieved 12 January 2012.
[edit] Further reading
Denholtz, Elaine (2001). The Zaddik: The Battle for a Boy's Soul. Prometheus Books. ISBN 9781573929202.
